#can y’all tell my comics class has been giving me a lot to think about?

[jerichogender]

okay not to get pretentious here but sometimes i feel like the comics tumblr culture of cropping parts of a comics page to only show certain panels relevant to what you’re talking about makes it so a lot of the time we’re not appreciating the layout of how all the panels work together in a particular page (or even two pages side-by-side). like sometimes the most dynamic & visually effective panels are not easily croppable or able to be taken out of the context of the comic as a whole & i think that’s a good thing

[darkstarnight02]

Why the Akuma Class Doesn’t Trusts Lila Rossi

Nino

This dude is a loyal friend

Like, he’s also a loyal boyfriend, so it’s hard when his girlfriend is siding with Lila

But he’s the one who’s like

“Dudes, we’ve known Mari for years there’s no way she would do the stuff this new girl we’ve known for five minutes says she did.”

He and Kim and Mari were besties since preschool, I think we all know that.  

Adrien

I hate it when people say he tries to defend her with the high road crap

When he sees her hurting people, especially Marinette

Because lets be honest, he cares about her alot

He’s less forgiven

Like do y’all remember the “BeCaUsE We’Re FrIeNdS, aReN’t We?”

So he’s not going to try and make her life miserable

But he is going to try to get her to stop

Chloé

Let’s be honest, she never liked Lila in the first place.  

So Imma give y’all bonus “how she figured out everyone’s identities”

So once she became friends with Marinette

Cause they formed a “we hate Lie-la” alliance

(tho since Mari’s still friends with the others its kinda awkward)

Chloe’s pretty smart.  

Like, she totally could have figured it out before they became friends

But she would never have believed back then that Mari-trash was Ladybug, her idol (and lesbian awakening, lesbihonest)

But now that she’s friends with her, it’s way too obvious

And she definitely already knew about Adrien because these guys are besties

And, dudes, she never had a crush on him, she was just an overprotective best friend

And a very touchy one

To her, it’s all pretty obvious.  

She thinks that its just whatever magic thats blinding everyone of the obvious, its immune to (like low-key Rachel Dare here)

But Sabine, Tom, and Jagged probably know to because they’re all Kings and Queens.  

So Chloe figures everyone out pretty quickly.  

Sabrina

She trust Chloe more than anyone.  

But I’m not just gonna use that because its kinda boring.  

Tho Chloe is her bi crush so that definitely helps secure loyalties

Its only when Marinette becomes MDC that she realizes

and yes, Sabrina probably knows because Chloe and she also recognizes the designs from some stuff she has in her own closet.  

So anyway, she realizes Mari is MDC and she’s some famous designer and Lila is not

And Mari also knows Jagged and Clara and a whole bunch of other famous people

And she never brags about it but there’s proof that she knows them

while Lila always brags about it but she’s never been mentioned and no one knows her.  

Alya

I hate it when people say she totally sides with Lila.  

This girl knows that her bestie never lies(or at least thinks)

and some things with Lila don’t add up.  

Like she doesn’t check directly if what Lila says is true

But she’ll be doing research for something else and see’s that it contradicts something that Lila said.  

So she’ll do more research and try to figure more stuff out

And she’s like holy f*ck nothing Lila says is true.

Or, alternatively, for those of you who have watched season 4

She immediately realizes Lila’s a liar right after Marinette tells her she’s Ladybug.  

Marinette

No explanation needed.  

Mylène

Mylene notices when Lila insults one of her classmates one day.  

Even if its subtle, or just piping on the edge of her blaming Marinette for something, she notices it.  

And a good person wouldn’t say something like that,  

Like Chloe, they all expect something like that from

No one every really liked Chloe in the first place

And Mari never says anything rude

Sure, she gets angry at Chloe and Lila sometimes, and she tries to prove what they say is wrong, but she never directly attacks someone.  

I don’t know who Lila was being a bitch to this time, but it cost her a follower.  

Alix

This girl is probably one of the most Gen Z kids in the Akuma Class, which is pretty sad because they’re all supposed to be Gen Z. 

She can smell bullcrap from a mile away

Not to mention the little hints older Bunnyx drops whenever she visits.  

With the mix of her being the future miraculous holder of time and being the daughter of a historian, she’s very aware of history and timelines and cause and effects and chain reactions

So when Marinette starts ‘acting up’ she tries to find when her personality switched over

And even if she seems more like a background character, this aro/ace queen always seems to know your secrets. 

So even before she knew Lila was a phony, she knew that Mari was MDC and that Jagged Stone was Juleka and Luka’s dad

So she definitely figured some stuff out that way

Honestly, next to Chloe, Alix was probably one of the first people to figgure out Mari’s identity.  

She’s a detective to rival batman

Ivan

I think Lila would make some sort of rift between him and Mylene.  

He loves her so much and it would be so hard

And mari and her friends would help him out

and he would see the truth

They wouldn’t like break up or anything

But he can just tell immediately when someone’s being a bad person.  

Kim

Probably something similar to Nino

But I think it’d be a bit more like he’s totally a die-hard fan of some of Marinette’s connections or some of Marinette’s work itself

And when he puts the pieces together its like everything makes sense in the world.  

He really feels super stupid afterwards.  

Ondine probably slaps him for not trusting his childhood best friend before some bitchy new girl.  

Max

This is the smartest dude in class

He made a f*cking robot with emotions you can’t tell me he doesn’t figure Lila out.  

A part of me believes that in the first episode with Lila when they were all waiting on her hand and foot they were probably aware that she was kind of delusional, but were giving into it the way you give into the tales of a six year old.  

Like ‘yeah, okay sweetie.  Sure’.  

I mean, at least that’s why Max went along with the napkin thing, because there’s no other excuse for that whole incident.  

Nathaniel

I don’t totally know how he figured her out, but I love the idea of her saying that she can introduce him to the creator of the Ladybug Comics.  

They actually sit next to each other in class, so he definitely is more aware of her weird behavior than others.

And since he’s an artist he’s very observant, always noticing things like her facial expressions and what seems more exaggerated than real.  

And we all know how kwami-damned done Nathaniel is with the class, so he probably knew all along.  

Not to mention that since the rest of the school is less submissive to Lila’s lies, Marc probably pointed it out to him at some point.  

There’s also the idea that since Nathaniel is pretty much never mentioned anymore, the class forgets about him and he ends up having to spend some time with Marinette and the other outcasts

In which he realizes that they are actually good people.  

Honestly, Nathaniel probably knew all along but he’s just not a drama queen about it so Lila never bothered him.  

Rose

Girls besties with Prince Ali, one of the key components of Lila’s lies

She definitely does not want to believe that someone is capable of so much evil, and she definitely gets Akumatized when she figures it out

She goes through a lot of denial but is eventually convinced.  

Juleka

Her dad is Jagged Stone, also another key component of Lila’s lies.  

After becoming Tigris Pourpre, the holder of the tiger miraculous (that’s canon in the future), she gets a little bit more invested in cat culture

And omfg I just realized that both of our models are kittens and I just wanna DIE because that’s so cute.  

And honestly now that I’m thinking about it if she was a celebrity she would totally take after Jagged and have an emotional support tiger like Princess Jasmine. 

ANYWAY, I’m kinda getting off topic here.  

So she asks Jagged about his cat, and he’s like 

“wtf I’ve never had a cat why would I have a cat I have FANG my CROCODILE”

And she’s like but your cat...

And he’s like “Jules, darling, I wrote a song about how I replaced my family with a guitar and I have three instagrams for Fang, why would I have a feline animal?”

And she’s just like

....

And honestly she probably already knew some sh*t was up before that

Because Luka obviously, despite only having met Lila, like, once, probably, dislikes Lila severely

And also Juleka is more of an observer than a do-er so she probably saw that some stuff was up.  

[truly-morgan]

Fanfic idea am too tired to write for now pt.1

So I have many fanfiction Idea, yet my dumb ass is just way too tired in so many ways to actually write anything for now, so I decided “Why not just make a list and see what people enjoy, might give me motivation”. This might be a multi-fandom post, depending on how many idea I can brings back from my bad memory.

After all, what better than writing a fanfic is to just dumb down the plot and ramble about me ideas.

TodoBakuDeku

Soulmate marks AU

They are all soulmates, and two of them a really dumb. The two first to notice are Midoriya and Todoroki. Somewhere after the sport festival, they happen to be changing at the same time for X reason and one of them notice they have a matching marks. We have two dorks unsure what to do, but they decided “Hey, lets give it a chance, we are already on a good start”.

Everything goes well, everyone do kinda notice how close they have become, but hey maybe it just how they are with close friend (especially with poor Shouto being a novice at friendship). But, one day when they are all changing after a sport class, Kirishima points out how similar Bakugo’s mark is to Midoriya’s one, making our explosive boy mad but then realise they have the same. Somehow these two childhood friend either never actually notice it (tbf, Bakugo’s mark isn’t that visible) or just erased that information from their memory if it was ever discovered.

And then we have Todoroki and Midoriya unsure what to do since they weren’t expecting to add a third person (after all it is rather rare thing to happen, but not in my fanfic), while Bakugo is just confused at how this situation as escalated quickly. Then we simply have a couples chapter seeing how thing are evolving between them, maybe some jealous Bakugo who didn’t want any of that at first but didn’t like seeing them this close when he could be a parts of it.

And somehow I wanna have Kirishima trying to help his friends, because of course he would, despite being confused by missing the part where Todoroki is also part of the equation.

Fantasy AU

This one would probably need to be cut in two parts? Like I imagine them meeting on a first quest and kind of slowly falling for each other that way? Like, Midoriya was already on this quest with Iida and Uraraka, joined later by prince Todoroki after Midoriya broke the ice (dum dum tss). They probably meet Bakugo on the way, already acquainted with Midoriya because of past event and decide to tag along “Because I was already going there, anyway Deku would get himself kill if he went alone”. So they ends up kind of bonding over the thing they live through and after killing the demon or something.

Second part is something I feel has more seriousness to it, happening a couple years later, where their relationship is something along the line of “I have no clue what relationship I have with these two exactly, there seems to be something but am not sure, but one thing I know is I am ready to die or kill for them”.

This would happen where Todoroki’s kingdom is dragged into war against the dragonkin because they are allies of the one going against them for land and riches. Todoroki has no choice but to actually follow his dad and obviously Bakugo will take care of his kind. I was imagining this whole scene going where Todoroki asks Midoriya to choice what he knew he wouldn’t regrets doing later on (so obviously going with Bakugo). A truly difficult choice, but the both understand, especially Bakugo, that he has obligation and no real choice in the matter if he wants things to change later on.

So we have this whole war going on, learning that Todoroki was working a little more in the background to actually help or makes thing less bad for the dragonkin when he his the one in commands.

One of the rare fanfic where I had some ideas about how to end this story, despite it being rather unsure yet.

BakuDeku

a/b/o

I was going to make a follow up to Bond where we see some snippet from their daily lives as official mates (yet hidden from the public for obvious reason). I already had a couple of ideas for this one, not sure if it actually count as a fanfiction since all the chapter would be rather “unrelated” to one another, each a little story that doesn’t exactly have a follow up in another chapter.

AllEraserMic

Everyone dies trilogy

I am an angtsy bitch and already started this mini-serie with They Both Knew. It was suppose to only be one story at first, then I wondered “How would the different duo react to on of them dying”. So I already did the Toshinori one, am missing Aizawa and Hizashi. This is purely to write angst since it had been a while since I actually wrote angst (I swear I wanted to cry when writing in on the bus something, the hospital scene was the worst).

So yeah, this is at least already kind of started I suppose.

Soulmate Marks AU

(Can y’all see what kind of jam I like?). This one is an idea that has already be seen quite many time in this ship dynamic, where Both Aizawa and Hizashi are in a nice relationship after discovering they were soulmates when studying at UA. So what happens when Toshinori realise that they are both his soulmate? Of course he can’t tell them, after all he wouldn’t want to break that happy couple.

Of course he’s not the most subtle man on earth about it and the couple does notice how weird he seems to act and how much more than before he make sure that his marks stay hidden.

EraserMic

Villain!Mic

This would most likely be based around the Villain Mic Au created by @corndog-patrol​ because I just really love her Villain!Mic so much (this is the kind of villain I really love too) and it gave me ideas. Go check her little comics about this AU, it’s absolutely lovely.

This would most likely be a slow burn (because that’s my speciality at this point), with different accounters they have throughout Eraserhead patrols, where he slowly get a better understanding of how Mic actually is, which mean not really a villain, despite Mic trying to convince him otherwise.

I like the idea of working with a Mic who is convince his quirk cannot be use for good because he was convince early on that his quirk is dangerous (painfully proved by his now bad hearing), yet still act in more ways that would be seen a heroic rather than villainous.

Am not an original person when it comes to AU apparently, but I just really like this idea and wanted to play with it a little bit.

If you want a good fanfic that is already written in that setting please go check out Villainous Heroics by Ibelieveinahappilyeverafter. I hope I won’t get subconsciously inspired by it (or at least not too much) when I write this.

BillDip

Reversed a/b/o Dynamic

So I already started it, this is probably cheating, but I don’t have the energy to write right now so fuck it  ╮(￣ω￣;)╭. So this is an AU reversing the abo usual dynamic and omega are instead treated very well, coming from a twitter tread i had seen.

The twins are both actors (Mabel the film industry and Dipper more on the theater scene) and Bill is the CEO of the studio for which Mabel’s work. He basically meets Dipper when he was going to greet Mabel and fall head over heel for him, making him want to court him.

This is a rather fluff oriented story, where they slowly get to know each other better and Bill trying to court Dipper because in this house we respect omegas. This is a much more light hearted story than some of the one presented higher in this post. I was only going to start really writing it after finishing my two other AU (the 20′s speakeasy and zombie apocalypse ones), but when i get back into writing I might do that.

Lets make a deal AU

So I already presented this one in a previous list, but I really wanna get to write it down at some point.

This is where Dipper as a lot of confidence issue, comparing himself with his family and not seeing anything good in himself. I wanted to play on Bill not necessarily doing weirdmagedon that year and instead taking interest in Dipper.

I wanted to see Bill slowly pulling Dipper in after getting interested in him and thinking his great mind could help him in his plan. Also what better thing than to have one of the wheel sign on your side?

This is more on a Dark!Dipper AU kind of vibe, where the relationship is probably not as wholesome and good as the other one I’ve written until now, but I wanted to see something different.

==

Welp, can y’all tell I got interested in bnha lately? (if some of my many doodle of it wasn.t telling). I feel like I write for only two fandom despite loving many show. It just sometimes I feel like I would really be able to do it well? Like I’ve read many Hannibal fanfic, but I don’t think I would be able to write one whom is really good.

Anyway, these are the idea I really wanna write at some point, might get to do it in my not so existent free time or if I don’t feel like reading on the bus.

[theseerasures]

Conspicuous Media Consumption, 2020

it’s that time of year again! *saddest toot from the party horn*

for those of you just joining us: it’s a “consume a different content every week for 48 weeks of the year” challenge. for a longer explanation, check out last year’s write-up here, and as always, feel free to pop in and ask questions about any and all of this content.

(same disclaimer as last year too: content for this project ONLY here, and not certain...*looks at my billion Sad Cop Lady posts*...hyperfixations.)

(man remember when i was big into X-Men comics earlier this year? better times than these, if only because no one's discoursing about Emma Frost’s woobie/war criminal ratio anymore--her w/w, if you will)

(...i swear at one point i didn’t exclusively like platinum blondes but alas)

Bitter Root (comic, 1 issue finished 1/1/2020): still very cool on a basic concept level, but runs into the Image Comics problem of just not having enough content to keep my interest beyond that. part of that is on me, for picking it up again BEFORE the second arc rolled out, but the first five issues didn’t really follow (or resolve) any cohesive story either, so...meh.

Immortal Hulk (comic, 3 trades finished 1/17/2020): still not gonna be something i care deeply about (maybe one of Bruce’s Hulksonas dyed his hair???), but i do want to give kudos to Al Ewing for sheer consistency in terms of sustaining this level of quality storytelling month by month for more than two years now. working with the dense archive of the Hulk mythos and managing to make it interesting and thoughtful is impressive even if i personally would not expend the same effort.

Disco Elysium (game, finished 1/18/2020): honestly i should have twigged onto what this year was gonna be like when the third thing i drew from the barrel was pure uncut Eastern European flavored depression. i faintly recall people ragging on it for being pretentiously cynical, but i actually thought its core slid more towards idealism than people give it credit for. also gratified that i haven’t heard anything about Robert Kurvitz using slave labor to finish it, which is a thing we have to say about our video games now!!! fun.

Watchmen (TV, 7 episodes finished 1/27/2020): i am a fool who wants to believe in Damon Lindelof and I WAS RIGHT!!! honestly still cannot believe that he pulled off this highwire act with such deft aplomb. might be my favorite TV this year, which is a pretty high bar given how much TV i ended up watching.

On a Sunbeam (comic, finished 2/1/2020): Tillie Walden rightly deserves all the praise for inventive queer storytelling, but i will say that on reread--since i first read this as a webcomic--there ARE some issues with pacing here that clearly come from the foibles of its original intended medium. still just excellent, even if after some plot significant haircuts i was having trouble telling a few folks apart.

Lazarus (comic, 1 trade finished 2/8/2020): it’s so good and i want moooooorrrreee--though obviously Rucka and Lark have the right to take all the time they need. the newer longer issues work really well with the epic prestige drama vibes of the story! i’m into it.

The Good Place (TV, 4 seasons finished 2/18/2020): i’m gonna be super honest: i actually wasn’t a big fan of the finale, nor the last season as a whole. it felt like all of Eleanor’s flaws vanished for a majority of the season, and the Chidi-centric episode where they tried to give a legible justification for why he’s Like This was...i didn’t care for it. still, it’s so good and unique on the WHOLE that we’ll literally never get anything like this ever again, and that counts for a lot.

The Old Republic (game, finished 2/21/2020): it’s an MMO so it will never actually Be Finished so long as the servers aren’t shut down, but i caught up on the content i’d missed in the intervening months. Onslaught thus far has mostly been...kinda bland tbh; going back to Imps vs. Rebs after all the shakeups in the previous expansions feels like a waste.

High Road (album, finished 2/22/2020): someone should tell Kesha not to say that word!! otherwise i was very happy with this album, and happy FOR her even though we don’t know each other. being able to find joy again in the same genre of music you made while you were being horrifically exploited is very cool.

Young Justice (TV, 13 episodes finished 2/28/2020): given how much the middle stuff dragged--STOP KILLING YOUR HIJABI CHARACTER IN HORRIFIC WAYS--i was...actually kinda mad by how the end managed to stick the landing anyway. the day being saved by Vic’s self-acceptance and Violet’s sublime compassion was A+, and even the Brion/Tara switchup was a pleasant surprise, though it relied on me caring about Brion MUCH MORE than i actually did.

Manic (album, finished 2/29/2020): do people still care for/about Halsey? i feel like even That One Song that was on every tumblr gifset ever has kinda faded into obscurity at this point. this album was...okay. i feel like people give Halsey a pass for extremely obvious lyrical turns that they wouldn’t for other folks because of her subject material--which is fine. not really my cup of tea, but i also listened to lots of Relient K this year, so that’s probably a good thing.

Jade Empire (game, 3/10/2020): the only 3D-era Bioware game that didn’t franchise out, and for good fucking reason!!! the Orientalism and appropriation really haven’t aged well, and even beyond that the story was...standard Bioware faire. even my usual “my wife’s a bitch i love her” Bioware type didn’t do it for me, and i just ended up romancing no one. it did make me think a lot about what level of cultural borrowing is accepted nowadays, and why: people still look fondly at Avatar and talk about how ~accurate and respectful it was, for example, despite it being staffed almost entirely by white folks, and the Orientalism ALL OVER the monk class in DND is still fine for some reason.

Alif the Unseen (book, finished 3/31/2020): interesting to have read this AFTER reading The Bird King last year, because it highlights how the intervening years have shifted G. Willow Wilson’s thematic interest and improved her craft. i’m actually quite fond of how her characterization work is rougher here--Alif is extremely flawed to the point of being insufferable, but it makes his development by the end more satisfying. Dina is also just good and i love her

Baldur’s Gate (2 games, finished 5/31/2020): well, having finally finished the series i’m happy to say that it...still doesn’t really do it for me, sorry. any awesome story moments were overshadowed by the EXCRUCIATING inventory management system and the combat (i still don’t know what a THAC0 is and at this point i’m afraid to find out). these games crucially lack the Home Base that later Bioware games were so good about, and that (coupled with the huge cast of characters you can drop off and never see again) really hurts the intimacy for me. by the time we finally did get one it was the Hell Dimension in Throne of Bhaal, and i was just...trying to get through it. (yes, i did just say that about one of the most beloved expansions ever to one of the most beloved games ever.) THIS particular iteration of “my wife’s a bitch i love her” was very good, but the game wouldn’t let me romance her :(

The Underground Railroad (book, finished 6/19/2020): honestly what is there even left to say at this point! it was exactly as good as every critic on the planet said it was, even with my usual aversion to hype. draining and horrifying in turns but still insistent upon a future for Black folks.

Steven Universe (6 seasons and a mooooooviiieeee, finished 7/11/2020): yes, i DID finish the show and almost immediately begin a rewatch. this series is now one of my top five most formative things, and the amount of love and respect i have for it is incalculable. that said: i once again did not love how the central conflict of Future was resolved (just the resolution--i loved the finale just fine). for all of Steven’s breakdown was built up, resolving it with “EVERYONE HUG HIM UNTIL HE CRIES” felt...cheap, especially since up until this point the show had been so good about treating trauma and mental illness with the respect and nuance it deserves. it made me wish some of the earlier, less substantial episodes had been cut so we could spend more time at the end.

What It Is (comic, finished 8/19/2020): y’all i love Lynda Barry SO MUCH. for the longest time i was worried that One Hundred Demons was more a lightning in a bottle situation but every book of hers i pick up makes me feel obscure emotions i didn’t even realize existed. the compassionate way she’s able to describe her child self and how weird and fucked up she was (and still is) is honestly aspirational.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (TV, 5 seasons finished 9/26/2020): so here’s a reversal of what i’ve been complaining about with other shows: i was mostly lukewarm-to-warm about She-Ra, but the later seasons and the finale made me much more into it as a whole. more shows should improve in stakes and overall quality as they age tbh!! i still don’t actively love Catradora (my sole quibble with season 5 actually has to do with the way Adora kept backsliding as a character to make certain Plot/Relationship things happen), but i’m very happy for them nonetheless. i can certainly appreciate a show that will go for High Feeling over tight plot. dark horse standout moments: trees growing everywhere proving that Perfuma Was Right, and Hordak and Adora seeing each other--that weirdly intimate moment of recognition.

Fetch the Bolt Cutters (album, finished 10/7/2020): again i find myself not having much to say that no one else has said. it’s good! once again love it when an artist reclaims something they’d attached with negative affect (anxiety, depression, disordered eating) for better and brighter things.

Solutions and Other Problems (comic, finished 10/25/2020): i was very into Allie Brosh’s ambition with this book, which feels weird to say but i stand by it. it’s cool to see an artist try to make a new medium work for them instead of just sticking to what already works. not all the experimentation was 100% effective, but it was still delightful and occasionally devastating to read, so.

Legend of Zelda (3 games: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Link Between Worlds, finished 11/1/2020): this was the third time i’d played Ocarina of Time, which made it the nice, comforting groove i settled into before Majora’s Mask blatted me in the face. i’m not usually a completionist Zelda person because...the gameplay in Zelda is bad, do not at me it just is, but i really felt like i HAD to be one for Majora’s Mask since the whole point is to get attached to the banalities of the town. i’m sure nobody’s surprised that i loved it, even if it gave me an existential crisis about how life goes on in the game for NPCs when you’re not there to save them from it, and there’s not enough time to save them all all the time (also not a surprise to anyone: Romani and Cremia gave Personal Feelings). Link Between Worlds...bad. not like in a “this is a bad story by every measurable gauge” way, but i was already struggling with the 2D playstyle shift enough that for the whole story to end with some “yes it’s v sad that Lorule is Like This but trying to steal Hyrule’s privilege is Even Worse Actually” noblesse oblige bullshit left a VERY poor taste in my mouth, this year of all years. i did audibly gasp when Ravio took off his mask, though. i’m currently playing Breath of the Wild in cautious increments; it’s the first time i’ve enjoyed early Zelda gameplay, but if they wanted fully voiced cutscenes i wish they got voice actors who...knew what words sound like.

folklore (album, finished 11/6/2020): my belief that Taylor Swift is Just Fine continues, i’m afraid. i LIKED this album, don’t get me wrong, and respect her constant drive to innovate, but i didn’t love it substantially more or less than any other Taylor Swift album. mostly i’m just tickled by how she thinks leaning into the indie aesthetic means borrowing Vita Sackville-West’s entire wardrobe, though i will admit to feeling Something when she swore in a song. i think it was like. savage vindication?? you go ahead and swear, Taylor Swift. you deserve it.

Shore (album, finished 11/19/2020): do people still care about the Fleet Foxes? i think there was some Drama with Josh Tillman a while back but i don’t remember where the discourse landed with who was being more problematic. it was nostalgic for me to listen to their new album--made me remember being an undergrad who exclusively listened to men who mumbled and played acoustic guitar all over again.

Star Wars (3 movies: original trilogy, finished 11/27/2020): there is So Much bad Star Wars these days that every time i rewatch the original trilogy i’m afraid that they will suddenly be bad, but guess what! they’re not. i love these children and their hot mess stories, i love that Lando doesn’t know how to say his best friend’s name. what stood out to me this time was the way Obi-Wan described the Force in A New Hope, which strongly implied that ANYONE can be Force Sensitive; that obviously faded with each subsequent movie, but part of me does wish they’d kept it.

X of Swords (comics, 22 issues finished 12/5/2020): i am enjoying Hickman’s X-lines!!! not so much here for the Grand Conspiracy or whatever, but the character work and highkey weirdness is fabulous--they FEEL like X-Men, despite all the shakeups in-universe. this crossover is a nice microcosm of all that: grandiloquently all over the place, but still full of cool standout moments and genuine hilarity. ILLYANA DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO SPELL MAGIC.

Fire Emblem (4 games: Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Awakening, finished 12/14/2020): this was the thing that i was closest to giving up early on, but i ended up hyperfixating on it instead. that’s a credit to what the gameplay does to my lizard brain more than anything else, because the story and character writing is...insipid. it was very bizarre to witness this franchise blunder around with its animal-people racism allegory around the same time i was getting back into RWBY, and ITS animal-people racism allegory blunders. Awakening was the first time i felt anything for the franchise beyond “teehee red units disappear make exp bar go up and brain go ding,” so i’m excited for more mature storytelling in subsequent games (they MUST get better. they MUST). the child husbandry thing is...very bad tho, and Apotheosis being “challenging” entirely through the game changing all the rules is also bad.

once again no vidya games that came out this year--i’ll probably pick up Spiritfarer or Hades after the New Year, though (or maybe TLOU II! but probably not. sry Laura and Ashley). more TV and franchises this year, which made me feel In Touch with the Children but was also kinda exhausting. nothing was so egregiously terrible i dropped it without finishing! in a year like this that feels almost like an accomplishment

[thelastdragneel6417]

𝗗𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗧𝘂𝗯𝗲 𝗝𝗔𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 part 1

(Ok sooo here’s my first time trying to write something original and good god am I nervous soo I hope you all enjoy)

The sun has now just rose above beacon academy signaling the start of a new day, while many would view this day to train or study to improve themselves as huntsmen and huntresses. For the (SUPER AWESOME AMAZING AND SERIOUS) team called team RWBY their is only one word that they would call this day

...

...

𝗕𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚

*At Team RWBY’s dorm room*

Yang: *laying on her bed looking throw her scroll before tossing it next to her* uggg I’m booored.

Weiss: * gruntingas she stops working on next weeks homework* normally I would scold you on your bluntness I agree it is quite boring today.

Blake: * siting on her bed reading her por - u mm I mean Um her “high class literature” yeah I agree but what do you ya think we should do?

Yang: *in a thinking pose* ummm how about we got the club?

Blake: *shaking her head* seriously is that all you can think of?

Yang: *in a hurt tone* HEY!!!

Weiss: besides we can’t the bullhead terminals are shut down for repairs after YOU AND NORA ALMOST DESTROYED IT BECAUSE OF YOUR IDIOTIC FIGHT *glaring at Yang*

Yang: *waving her hand defensively* hey in my defense Nora started it server her right for saying that pancakes are better that wallfls and besides I won it in the end.

Blake: no you didn’t Nora clobbered you into the ground.

Yang: *angry* hey whose side are you on anyway!?!?

Blake: *rolling her eyes* anyway how about we head to the library?

Weiss: that’s an excellent idea Blake. I think some time in the library would do us all some good.

Yang: ugggg no not the library I though we decided to kill our boredom not to kill me!!!

Weiss: you can stand to improve your book smart you barbaric bimbo *glareing at Yang knowing fill well that she probably a single second in the library during the new semester*

Yang: hey I’ll have you know that physical strength and training are more valuable than reading a few book right sis?

*silence*

Yang: *confused* umm sis???

*yang and the girls all turn to look at Ruby’s bunk to see that she’s laying on her stomach kicking her feet in the air in a childish manner headphones on her head humming along to a song not paying attention to the argument going on*

Yang: Ruby? *no answer* hey Ruby?? *still no answer frustrated Yang walks over to Ruby lifts one side of her headphones and screams in her ear* RUBY!?!?!

Ruby: *leaps I. The air in shock before landing on her butt in shock* owww *rubbing her butt to suve the pain before glaring at Yang* why would you do that?

Yang: sorry sis but I could get your attention what were you doing anyway?

Weiss: yes I would like to know too? *internaly* probably reading on of her childish comic books uggg what a dolt?

Ruby: ohh I was just listening to JAGames *ploping herself off the ground before jumping back on top of her bunk*

Weiss: *confused having never heard of what that dolt they called a leader was talking about* JA who???

Ruby: *gasping in shock before using her semblance to bolt over to Weiss getting right up to her face* YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF JAGAMES!?!?

Blake: *anoyingly picking rose petals out of her hair and book* let’s assume we haven’t who are you talking about?

Ruby: *wipping her head around to Blake before screeching* HE’S ONLY THE GREATEST DUSTTUBE SINGER OF ALL TIME!!!!

Weiss: DustTube??? You mean that stupid website where people post those idiotic videos of themselves???

Blake: I wouldn’t say that DustTube it that bad you can make some serious money if you’re committed to it.

Yang: yeah but a DustTube singer is not a good thing to hear cause most of them are absolutely horrible *cringing as she remembers that Oum awful rap named “It’s Just Today Mate” by Ten Team*

Ruby *scoffs like she’s offended* ugh JAGames is nothing like them he’s a thousand times better than them his singing, his rhythm, and his music makes it look like all those other wanna bees are just babies playing with a baby piano.

Blake: huh seems like you know this guy a lot?

Ruby: of course I do I’m his number one fan after all I’ve listened to all of his music and bought all of his merch and all his albums JAGames’ music have gotten me through some tough times so I will always love him even though he has never shown his face.

Yang: huh soo that’s where all that stuff came from I’ve always wondered about that also *grinning* aren’t you already dating a certain noodle boy right now for shame Ruby how could you break jaunes heart by having an affair?

Weiss: I still don’t know what you see in that dolt *rolling her eyes back not truly understanding why ruby would want to date that idiot but nether the less grateful that he has stop relentlessly trying to ask her out*

Ruby: *beet red embarrassed* Yannng stop that it’s not like that all *blushing* even though I really like him and his music I will always love my sweet knight more.

Ruby: anyway I’ve got an idea since I’ve talked about JAGames this long *an ear to ear smile creeps up on her lips before shouting* WOULD YOU LIKE TO LISTEN TO SOME OF HIS MUSIC WITH ME!?!?

Weiss: *appoled* are you crazy!?!? No why would we ever want to listen to your stupid music!?!?

Yang: I’m in sounds like fun

Weiss: *shocked* WHAT WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT?

Yang: it sounds fun anything to beat this boredom and besides I’ve been trying to find some new music for a while now.

Weiss: fine then be that way but know that Blake and I won’t be bothered to listen to your childish music.

Blake: actually I’ll join in too.

Weiss: *absolutly shocked* WHYYYYYYYYY!?!?!?!

Blake: same as Yang seems like fun also I’ve just finished reading my book so I e got nothing else better to do.

Yang: see even kitty cat wants to watch with us *blake glares at Yang for saying that* so whatcha say I’ve queen care to join us?

Ruby: *giving Weiss the worlds most dangerous weapon known to man the dreaded puppy dog eyes* plweeessszzzzzzzzzz?????

Weiss: *unable to resist the deadly powers of the puppy dog eyes* I— umm I ohhh alright I’ll listen to your stupid music what kind of music does he make anyway?

Ruby: *jumping up and down excited* yay thank you bestie ohh he mostly makes rock -metal songs some time a little bit of pop and always follows a certain theme.

Weiss: *annoyed by knowing that she’s going to be listening to that barbaric type of music* and that I is???

Ruby: *embarrassed* umm video games?

Weiss: WHAT THOSE STUPID IDIOTIC CHILDISH GAMES THAT ARE A WASTE OF TIME WHY DID I EVER AGREE TO THIS *exclaimed loudly but secretly at the same happy because deep down she is a HUGE gamer a secret that she will take to the grave* AND YOU *pointing to Blake* ARE OK WITH IT!?!?!

Blake: why not? I don’t have a problem with video games sometimes they can tell a story better that a book.

Yang: welp too late to turn back know soo sis what song are we listening to today?

Ruby: *excitedly grabs her scroll unplugs her headphones and sets her scroll near her freinds* how about his newest one it’s a remake of one of my favorites I’m sure y’all will love it!!!

https://youtu.be/wNI0VCRmQ0c

(Here’s the song if you want to sing along)

🎶following total atomic anihilation🎶

🎶the rebuilding our this great nation our ours my fall to you🎶

🎶that’s why we at vault-tech have prepared these educational materials🎶

🎶for you to better understand the seven defining attributes that make you🎶

🎶special🎶

🎶the future fotells a tale of when the world goes🎶

🎶BOOM🎶

🎶BOOM🎶 (when the world goes BOOM BOOM)🎶

🎶nobody prepared🎶

🎶don’t think anybody cared about the🎶

🎶SOLE TRUTH (nobody cared about the SOLE TRUTH)🎶

🎶oh the bombs🎶

🎶they rose🎶

🎶 now everybody knows the🎶

🎶DOOMS DAY DEVICE(DOOMS DAY DEVICE)🎶

🎶claustrophobia🎶

🎶autotrophic🎶

🎶catostrophic hell🎶

🎶will be soo🎶

🎶and be up in the sky🎶

🎶even when the world feels🎶

🎶lonely and cold inside🎶

🎶even when the heart feels🎶

🎶BLISTERED FORM THE SCENES🎶

🎶for they will fall🎶

🎶For they will rise🎶

🎶for they would tear apart the view 🎶

🎶from your very eyes🎶

🎶take your hindsight and Change the world🎶

🎶FOR A NEW BEGINNING🎶

🎶for its now your chance🎶

🎶to use your hands🎶

🎶descend through the cracked in the dirt🎶

🎶WHERE YOU STAND🎶

🎶take on the vast open🎶

🎶MASQUERADE🎶

🎶THIS IS ATOMIC RENEGADE🎶

🎶following total atomic anihilation🎶

🎶the rebuilding our this great nation our ours my fall to you🎶

🎶that’s why we at vault-tech have prepared these educational materials🎶

🎶for you to better understand the seven defining attributes that make you🎶

🎶resources are scarce prepare yourself for homicidal🎶

🎶RAMPAGE (HOMICIDAL RAMPAGE)🎶

🎶 claim you’re rightful place🎶

🎶mark the writing on your face turn a🎶

🎶NEW PAGE (WRITING ON YPUR FACE TURN A NEW AGE)🎶

🎶well the bomb🎶

🎶they took🎶

🎶your land and now you’re🎶

🎶LEFT ALL ALONE (LEFT ALL ALONE)🎶

🎶Thers masses of🎶

🎶rebellious🎶

🎶proposterous, demonical🎶

🎶CARNAGE READY FOR YOUR BONES🎶

🎶use your senses and you’ll🎶

🎶PROVE YOU’RE WHOLE AGAIN🎶

🎶you’re the hero of this🎶

🎶LAND DEMISED WITH PAIN🎶

🎶for they will fall🎶

🎶For they will rise🎶

🎶for they would tear apart the view 🎶

🎶from your very eyes🎶

🎶take your hindsight and Change the world🎶

🎶FOR A NEW BEGINNING🎶

🎶for its now your chance🎶

🎶to use your hands🎶

🎶descend through the cracked in the dirt🎶

🎶WHERE YOU STAND🎶

🎶take on the vast open🎶

🎶MASQUERADE🎶

🎶THIS IS ATOMIC RENEGADE🎶

🎶now let’s begin with some simple instructions on what makes you a

SPECIAL 🎶

🎶strength🎶

🎶build your ability’s to carry more🎶

🎶persecution🎶

🎶will keep your aim right where you want it to be🎶

🎶endurance🎶

🎶bronze will tackle foes but how long for?🎶

🎶charisma🎶

🎶socialize enemies are closer than you think🎶

🎶intelligence🎶

🎶outsmart your foes with gadgets capable of removing harm🎶

🎶agilety 🎶

🎶build your reflexes to defend from approaching scum🎶

🎶luck🎶

🎶Tatic and strength is one thing🎶

🎶but some times all it takes is good luck🎶

🎶now take your world and throw it upside down🎶

🎶one man pushes through🎶

🎶ONE🎶

🎶MUTANT🎶

🎶AT🎶

🎶A🎶

🎶TIME🎶

*insert guttiar solo*

🎶for you will rise🎶

🎶through hell and back🎶

🎶you fortell of time when you were under attack🎶

🎶put your hindsight and change the world🎶

🎶for they will fall🎶

🎶For they will rise🎶

🎶for they would tear apart the view 🎶

🎶from your very eyes🎶

🎶take your hindsight and Change the world🎶

🎶FOR A NEW BEGINNING🎶

🎶for its now your chance🎶

🎶descend through the cracked in the dirt🎶

🎶WHERE YOU STAND🎶

🎶take on the vast open🎶

🎶MASQUERADE🎶

🎶THIS IS ATOMIC RENEGADE🎶

🎶TAKE THE WORLD AND BEGIN🎶

🎶THE CHARGE OF THE DAMNED🎶

🎶BE SURE TO DEFENS🎶

🎶YOUR BRETHREN FRIEND🎶

🎶YOUR ARMY DECENDS🎶

🎶YOU SAVE ANEW RACE 🎶

🎶UNTILL THE END🎶

Ruby: *nervous* sooo what do you girls think???

Yang:That. Was. Awesome Sis that has got to be one of the best songs I’ve ever heard it was soo action packed.

Blake: I have to agree that was a very good song not my cup of tea but still very good nonetheless.

Ruby: YAY that two for three sooo bestie did you like it???

Weiss: *quiet as a mouse and as stiff as a board before throwing her hands up in the air and screaming*HATED IT THAT WAS THE WORST SONG IVE EVER HEARD

RUBY: *almost as pale as a ghost and on the verge of tear* W-w WHAT!?!?!?

(That’s all I can type was it good or shit (sorry if it was) this is the longest thing I’ve ever typed here I hope you all enjoy) (don’t worry jaune comes in next part with a secret)

[afoolforatook]

Thank you, Wellies

So. I’ve been trying to do both class work and working on wips and just nothing is clicking. So, I thought I should go ahead and do this post, that I’ve been putting off, because.....it’s next week y’all.... So here goes. 

Here’s my original post, that explains what this comic meant to me four years ago. 

And here’s what it means to me now. (this is really long, sorry)

Man, I don’t really even know where to start this. How to start to say thank you. To Ngozi, to all of you.... It’s not possible to fully express what all of you have been for me the past four years. What this story has been for me. 

So many things have changed since I made this post almost four years ago. 

So many things haven’t. 

I’ve been way less active in the fandom since starting at SCAD, and I really was never that incredibly active to begin with, outside of my small group of friends on a discord server. 

And at times I feel bad about that. 

But it’s not because I don’t care about or need this community anymore. 

Rather it’s because this community, this story, gave me the strength to keep moving, and now I want to keep doing so, and make something that might one day even barely begin to show my gratitude. 

So until then, all I can do is say thank you over and over. I can never possibly say it enough. 

But still I wanted to thank you now, and try to explain to you what this comic about hockey and pies has meant to me, one last time before it ends. So that’s what I’ll try to do. 

It was surreal rereading this old post earlier this week. Reading 

“I think I could write a book just of our history and everything leading up to now and the details of this whole event” 

When I wrote this post four years ago, I honestly couldn’t imagine a future where I’d be anything other than incomplete.Or even a future at all. Everyday was just getting up and making myself keep breathing, keep trying to push towards something, even though I had no idea what that could ever be. 

For the first year I wrote daily journal entries, telling Emma about what happened that day, screaming at the universe for doing this, trying to help my future self remember little things, because everything was so hard to hold on to. 

Update days were always something nearly sacred to me. And really not even from a fan point of view. I don’t read them around other people. I sit somewhere quiet, by myself, and read slowly. Because they are little moments I try to share with her still. The only person I want with me when I read them that first time is her, in whatever capacity I can bring myself to imagine. 

A few months after the crash, I found one of Emma’s Spotify playlists. She made playlists for everything; birthday and Christmas presents, mood playlists, friend playlists, monthly playlists. 

This was her May 2016 playlist. Last updated May 16th. Two days before the crash. 

That playlist was literally the only thing I listened to for months on end. 38 songs.Over and over. 

And as I listened I started to think that, just maybe, some of these songs she put there for me. 

West Coast; the song me and Emma would send to each other after high school whenever we wanted to let the other know how much we missed them. 

All I Want is to Be Your Girl. I mean?? 

Slowly I found lyrics in every song that even if just in my own fantasy, were little messages from Emma, telling me to keep going, how to stay strong. 

I was always looking for stories, books, movies, songs, anything about someone grieving the kind of loss I was. Nothing I found felt like it really represented me. If it was about someone young, it was due to suicide or violence or illness. If it was a car crash, it was about a parent or child. If it somehow fit my other demographics, it was never queer. 

I felt totally alone in the exact manifestation of my grief. Like no one else could understand all the tiny details that seemed, to me, to make this all more and more cartoonishly cruel. 

(though one of the most touching moments of my life will always be when Emma’s step mom, the only person in her family who knows about us, sent me a book about grieving a spouse. I cried for hours when I opened that.)

I didn’t have outside representation, support. But I had journals. I had Emma’s songs. I had poems and a handful of inktober drawings. I had my little update moments of connection. And I had so much to say. 

Months, years, of isolation gives you a lot of time to examine your feelings, to question the meaning of things, to think about what exactly grief looked like to you and about how you wanted to live the rest of your life, as someone grieving a love. 

And slowly I began to connect those thoughts to individual lyrics from Emma’s playlist and that helped me actually write all those thoughts out, organize them. 

And that’s how The Mixtape Project started (I still hate using the word memoir. I had to find something else to call it). A book about us. About Emma. About all those thoughts I’d had so long to sit with. Structured around the songs from her playlist. 

I remember the exact moment that I realized that Check Please was going to actively change my life. I was talking to my dad about it, about why I loved the storytelling, the characters, the art, so much. 

I’d told him many times before. But it was always tied to Emma in a way, or to the reasons that I identified with Jack. It was always a little sad in some way. 

But this time. This time it was just excitement. It was just a kid who has always loved words, gushing about a story that fascinated them. 

And I realized. It was the first time I had been just happy, excited, in the months since losing Emma. I remembered all those ideas Emma helped me with in high school, how we gushed over stories like that. I remembered what it was like to just love something and want to create, just because it made you happy. 

I knew I couldn’t go back to UNCA, and none of the other creative writing programs I had looked at seemed like they would fit the new person I was. 

So, for the hell of it, looking for some idea at how to start my life over, I looked at Ngozi’s personal story. And there was SCAD. There was sequential art. 

Now. I’d never ever considered myself an artist. I went to an art high school, I knew art kids. I was never one of them. But that sequential part? That. THAT was what I wanted. That was what I could still be excited about. 

That was how I could pull the Mixtape Project together. The writing, the poems, the art, the music. Comics. Sequential art. A graphic memoir that played with the format. That was the project that kept me going. That was what I was working for. That was the first future I was able to see now that Emma was gone. 

So, for the first time since literally elementary school, I took an art class (also took a mythology class at the same time, which really helped keep my art and storytelling tied). 

I loved it. I was actually happy with my work, surprised by my work and how quickly I felt like I improved (I wouldn’t learn about aphantasia until I got to SCAD, and understand that that drawing 1 class had been so fun, and in a way, easy, because it was all direct observation, and that drawing from memory and imagination would be a much steeper learning curve for me.)

So, when the class ended I thought ‘you know, maybe some kind of art school could be a good idea.’

And then one of my life long best friends, a SCAD animation student, encouraged me to apply, to just go for it. 

And I did. It was a long shot, I was sure. We couldn’t afford it. Why would I get that in that kind of commitment, debt,  after 1 art class? It wasn’t logical. But it felt good. So I did. 

And then I got accepted, and the initial excitement soon fell away, to me and my parents knowing that it really wasn’t doable. 

But we went to admitted students day, just to see. And when we got home, both of my parents cried for a long time. The first happy cry in our house for over two years.

Because they had decided that they had to figure out a way to make it work. 

Because standing in Haymans hall was the first time they had seen me excited about the future since Emma died. It was the first time they’d seen me feel like there was somewhere I was meant to be, that there was somewhere I could fit again. 

So we made it happen. I’ll still be in debt for years, and it’s not necessarily something I’d wholeheartedly recommend to kids getting out of high school, that debt isn’t worth it for many people. 

For me it wasn’t really even worth it exactly for SCAD itself, and you’ll have plenty of professors tell you here that really what you pay for isn’t the education but the networking. 

But for me. For me it was worth it. 

Because I wasn’t wasting away in my basement. 

And I really wasn’t where I’d have liked to have been, ideally, before starting. I was a BRAND new artist. My portfolio for my application was solely my writing work. I hadn’t ever done anything more than scribbled fan comics in my sketchbook. I was coming in wayyyyy behind where most other people were. But I couldn’t wait to feel like I was good enough to be there. There was a strong chance that it was quite literally, a matter of survival. I was reaching a breaking point after nearly three years of isolation and grief with no outlet. The future debt was less of a concern than making sure I didn’t have a complete mental breakdown or worse. 

Now, of course, it hasn’t all been easy or fun or happy once I got here. I’ve doubted myself, I’ve had awful weeks, months, been stressed, unmotivated, in pain, near burnout. 

The first quarter I was absolutely miserable because I had literally no social life. 

Because I was an agoraphobic 23 yr old, living with 17/18 yr olds fresh out of high school. And if I wasn’t careful, I’d dissociate so easily. I’d let myself believe that I was still a teenager fresh from high school. That the past three years of agony hadn’t happened. That I could call Emma and it would ring again. She would answer again. And that illusion was a dangerous pit to fall into. 

And it wasn’t until this fall that my social life really started to improve, beyond one or two close friends. And even still, while it’s much better, it’s nothing like UNCA, like the tight knit family I had that made me identify with SMH and the Haus atmosphere so much. 

But I was moving forward. Agonizingly slowly sometimes. But still forward. 

And then last Spring quarter, just about a year ago, I was in Survey for SEQA. Basically comic book history class. And our final was a 4 page research comic on a comic artist we admired. So of course, I was going to do mine on Ngozi. 

The comic was due at the end of the quarter, the end of May. 

Now, that quarter was the first time I was actually in SEQA classes; Survey, and Intro. 

And those four pages would be the first fully colored, refined comic pages I had EVER done. It was intimidating. I didn’t want to mess it up. Especially because this wasn’t some big name of some far off artist you would never have any connection to. This was someone who all my professors knew. 

I ended up getting extremely lucky and had the chance to email Ngozi and ask if she’d be able to give for a quote for the project, advice for current SCAD students. 

She replied to my email the weekend of the 3rd anniversary. (I then spent hours on a thank you email - because that’s who I am, I can’t not over analyze anything I’m sending to someone important - and then I managed to save it to drafts instead of actually sending it...something I would not notice until literally months later and be absolutely mortified about my apparent rudeness of never thanking her.)

I still am not really happy with how that project came out. I still had (and have) a lot to learn, and it shows. I have, in no way, become an amazing comic artist overnight. I wasn’t expecting to.

But that short email exchange, falling on that weekend; it felt special. It felt like some speck of proof that I was doing the right thing. That things could actually go well in my life again. That if I kept going, I might actually get somewhere that I wanted to be. That maybe I really could make The Mixtape Project happen, if I just kept at it here. 

And then I found out that in the fall, Ngozi would be the SEQA mentor. 

Unfortunately by the time I had all the details about how to apply, the quarter had started and there were only a couple of weeks before it was due, and the only pages I had even anywhere close to being portfolio ready were either my research comic or a few older Check Please fan comics, none of which I would even have considered putting in that portfolio (I’m not 100% certain it would actually have come across as sucking up but it sure felt like it would have). And despite my best efforts, it just wasn’t possible, with how slow I work and having to keep up with classwork, for me to get a portfolio ready in time. 

That hurt for a while. I felt like I had this clear sign of perfect timing. How could I pass up that chance? How could I forgive myself for not doing everything I could to earn that experience? How was I not letting Emma down if I ruined this opportunity? 

It took a while to get out of that negative thought spiral. But I did, and it’s still a bummer, but it’s okay. 

And something that really helped? 

In October, Ngozi still came to campus to give a lecture. And that would have been good enough; just sitting in on that helped me feel excited, encouraged again. But then, after the lecture (with my amazing roommate waiting patiently behind with me, to make sure I didn’t actually have a panic attack on the way home) I got to talk to her. 

We all hope to one day get to talk to the people who inspired us, whose work we love, to tell them how much they mean to us. And yes, I was a little version of starstruck. 

But that wasn’t why I was shaking. That wasn’t why I told her I was going to do my best to get this out without crying (and I did, I’m proud to say). 

It was because I had the opportunity, while at the school that had given me a chance to start my life again, to thank the woman who was in all likelihood, one of the main reasons I was even still alive. If it had not been for Check Please I wouldn’t have had that good thing to keep sharing with Emma. I wouldn’t have found sequential art, at least not for a while longer probably. I wouldn’t have been able to finally picture a future I wanted to get to. 

And I’ll be honest, I don’t remember 90% of what I actually said that night to Ngozi. 

But I told her my story. I told her about Emma. About how Check Please was the last thing we got to share. I thanked her. And she was wonderful and kind and emotional and hugged me a couple of times, and even though I don’t remember a lot of what I actually said; it was something that will be one of the most important, affirming moments of my life. 

I didn’t have a panic attack on the way home. I somehow managed to not cry until we were back to our dorm. But I was stunned. 

Not even because of the amazing moment I had been able to have with Ngozi. 

But because it hit me. 

I was doing it. I was there. I had actually made it this far. 

Somewhere that just over a year ago I never would have believed was possible. 

A time when, two years before, I hadn’t even been sure I could make it to alive. 

That weekend was my 24th birthday. And it was the first birthday since I left UNCA at 19, that I didn’t just hate the fact that I was getting older. That I was moving away from the happiest parts of my life so far. 

Yes it still hurt getting further from Emma, putting another tick on the years that I got that she didn’t. 

But I was actually finally excited at the idea of even having a future, let alone having an idea of what it could be. 

February was a difficult month for me. I have another (entirely way too long) post about why everything that happened with RWBY and Fairgame was so difficult for me, but to put it simply; my hope for the future was shaken.

I was back in the toxic negative thought spirals I had fought for years to train myself out of. 

I was seeing Emma, or her brother, or her mom, in crowds; something I hadn’t experienced since the first few months after the crash. I was in one of the biggest crisis moments I’d had since Emma’s death. 

But I was more experienced than when I was 20. 

It wasn’t fun, a lot of it probably wasn’t the ideal way to cope, but I did it. And I kept up with my work. I isolated more, but not completely. I made myself vent on snapchat or tumblr, and not worry about oversharing or annoying people, because it was either get it out or let it fester in my head.  And I couldn’t afford to let that happen. 

In mid March, I made a pitch packet for my comic scripting final. 

It was for The Mixtape Project. It was hard, and nerve-wracking, and there’s still mountains of work to be done. 

But after my initial synopsis (first of like seven versions, cause trying to put this thing in a good synopsis format is a nightmare) my professor told me that he thought my story had potential. 

That he could see it being published. He suggested, knowing that I was planning on taking his advanced scripting course this quarter (hey remember how mid march was only a few weeks ago?? Huh?? wild), that I keep working on it, and see about taking it to Editor’s day (SEQA students’ opportunity to basically pitch themselves and their ideas to publishers). 

Now, my professor is by no means an overly harsh critic, and is plenty supportive in general. 

But I also knew that that was not just something he said to students all the time. That he meant it. 

Editor’s Day (now online) is in mid May. The week of the 4th anniversary of Emma’s death, to be exact. 

Everything is a mess right now, and I’m stressed and tired and scared and heartbroken (this will be the first time since I was 9 that I have not had Merlefest; the highlight of my year, and since Emma’s death; the last big happy thing before I plunge into the nightmare that is May). 

Tuesday will come. Check Please will end. I will continue to support Ngozi and her work after Bitty’s story ends. 

But it will be sad. It won’t be easy. 

This thing that has been my tether to the most important person in my life, will still be there, but it will be over. 

It will have a concrete end. It will no longer be part of the future I am pushing towards. 

But I am a different person than the shattered kid who wrote this post four years ago. 

I’m not who I was before Emma died. I never will be. I’d never try to be. I want Emma back more than anything. But that won’t happen. And as long as this is all real, I never want to pretend this didn’t happen. 

That I didn’t shatter in a way that will never heal like people expect. 

I’m still all those shattered pieces that wrote this post. Maybe a few have had the edges dulled, maybe I’ve lost a few, glued a few together perfectly, maybe picked up a few stray pieces that didn’t come from the me from before. 

But I will be those shattered pieces for the rest of my life. 

They won’t magically fuse back together. I work every day to hold them, to keep myself in some shape that resembles a functioning person. 

Some days I fail. Some days, I am too tired to even try. Some days, I am so angry, I’d rather hurl the pieces at whatever power or fate or god or chaos decided that I got to live and she didn’t. 

But those days pass. 

And I learn how to hold the pieces better, how to avoid the sharpest edges, how to take care of the wounds when I inevitably cut myself on one, how to allow other people to help me hold them, how to accept that some pieces may feel safe and smooth and comforting but they are traps, illusions that are the easy way to do things, but not the healthy way, not the way that will help me achieve my goals.

That person, made of all those unholdable pieces, four years ago, was staying alive for everyone else but themself. 

And some days I still am. 

For my parents. For Emma. For all the other queer, mentally ill, grieving kids and young adults and just people, who are looking for the same representation I was, who feel as alone as I still do so often. 

But some days. 

On those really good days. 

I’m alive, carrying all those pieces, just because I want to be. For me. 

I want to spin around in the morning, singing along to my bluegrass spotify. I want to get excited over finally figuring out how to write that line that was giving me so much trouble, or finish that sketch that I never thought I could manage. I want to hope that despite how awful everything seems, there’s still a good future out there. It’s still possible to be happy some days. 

I want to cry because I get to see Jack and Bitty get the happy ending that me and Emma didn’t. 

And now, unlike that version of me from four years ago, when it ends, I will have things still. 

Things that I have worked everyday to reach, to deserve, to hold out to people and say

 “Hey, sometimes everything hurts and you know that things will never be what they were, and parts of you will always miss that. But there are still things you can find that hurt less, that ease the hurt, that teach you how to better hold the hurt, to stop trying to say it doesn’t exist or trying to get rid of it completely and hating yourself when you can’t. You can still be hurt, be irreparably broken in so many places, and still find the happy things. You are still worthy of love, no matter how broken you are. Your worth is not tied to how much you are able to heal.  You are worthy of so much love, just because you are still here, no matter how many tiny pieces you are in.”  

The thing is, I will still always have a future that includes Emma. Because I couldn’t tell you exactly which of my pieces are from her, but so many of them are. 

There is no version of me, from here on to the day I die, that does not have her influence embedded in every piece. 

These days I try to be a little kinder to myself. It doesn’t always work, but I try. 

Because, to Emma, I was Bitty. I radiated that “thing”. 

Whether or not I saw it in myself, doesn’t matter, because she did. 

But to me she was the one who radiated. 

And she is a part of me. She can’t radiate that “thing” herself anymore. 

But I can, at least I can try.

Because If this person I loved and trusted so immensely, saw something worth loving in me? There must be something there worth loving, right? 

And if she is a part of me for the rest of my life, how can I hate myself? How can I do anything but keep going so that, even if just in my head, a part of her gets to keep going too. 

My family and friends joke that every friend group I’ve ever had calls me something different. And really it’s not a joke. In middle school I was CB #4 (that’s a long, terribly embarrassing, story). In high school I was Pond (and many variations there of: Pondala, Pondy, Raindrop, Puddle, you get the picture). At UNCA, when I came out as nonbinary, I started going by Auden. When I went home it was back to Meagan; Meagan always felt right with my parents. 

With Emma I was always Meagan. We were Meagan and Emma. Megma. Meagan and Emma have online adventures!

After she was gone, Meagan didn’t really feel like me anymore. I loved Meagan, I missed Meagan, I wished I could still really fully be Meagan, and I’m okay still being Meagan sometimes. 

But that real Meagan. The Meagan that was Emma’s Meagan. Doesn’t exist anymore. I lost that Meagan somewhere in that first night of screaming and trying to break my hand against the wall, so I could just feel something other than the agony of Emma being gone.

When I joined a Check Please chat group, a few months after the crash, we gave each other hockey nicknames. I was Farley. 

My second quarter at SCAD, I started going by Farley. It stuck. 

That’s who this version of me is. This new artist, still figuring things out, but still going. 

I may not always stay Farley (other than ya’know artist ‘branding’. We’ll see) but that’s okay. Farley is who I need to be right now. 

Farley is who will finish The Mixtape Project. 

(because of two people mishearing both my nickname and last name I will, at least once in my career, use the pseudonym Fartley McFarmland and no one will stop me). 

I can’t imagine what, who, will come after Farley, if anything.

But Check Please will always be a part of making Farley, and every future version of me, exist. 

I could go on and on about how beautiful this story and these characters are, how inspiring Ngozi is, how genius her storytelling is, how powerful and important her work is. I could go on for days about all of that. But this is already so long, and I know that so many of you can go on about that probably way better than I could currently. 

But, as many of my professors tell us over and over, only I can tell this story. My story. Emma’s story. Our story. And it’s one I plan on telling for the rest of my life. 

And Check Please, Ngozi, will forever be the thing that made that possible.

So thank you. Those two words that are way too small to say it all. 

Thank you. 

Every fic writer

Every artist

Every rper 

Every chat friend

Every shitposter

Every theorist or meta poster

Every fan

Thank you. 

B. “Shitty” Knight. 

Larissa “Lardo” Duan

Adam “Holster” Birkholtz

Justin “Ransom” Oluransi

John Johnson

Ollie O'Meara 

Pacer Wicks

Jenny and Mandy

Nicholas and Jean-Claude

Coach Hall 

Coach Murray

Suzanne Bittle

Richard “Coach” Bittle

William “Dex” Poindexter

Derek “Nursey” Nurse

Chris “Chowder” Chow

Kent Parson

Alicia Zimmermann

“Bad” Bob Zimmermann

Tony “Tango” Tangredi

Connor “Whiskey” Whisk

Denice “Foxtrot” Ford

Fry Guy

Georgia “Georgie” Martin

Alexei “Tater” Mashkov

Sebastian “Marty” St. Martin

Dustin “Snowy” Snow

Poots

Randall “Thirdy” Robinson

Jonathan “Hops” Hopper

River “Bully” Bullard

Lukas “Louis” Landmann

(I’m almost certain I had to have missed someone)

Thank you.

Jack “Zimmboni” Laurent Zimmermann

Thank you.

Eric “Bitty” Richard Bittle

Thank you.

Ngozi Ukazu

Thank you. For everything. 

For having my back. I’ll always have yours.

Always yours, 

Farley M.

[papa-abel]

Feeling the tension within the party, Ardrana walks forward while lifting her sword to rest on her shoulder. She turns back to face you all, bringing her free arm up to flex with a smile, ‘We can do it!’

I just wanted to draw her flexing lmao, but more info on Ardrana under the cut

So as y’all know; Ardrana Goreadze Orc. Trans. Lesbian 26yrs old. 8ft. Traveller CREATION As I’ve briefly touched on, Ardrana was created as a ‘comfort OC’; she’s essentially me in reverse meaning she is trans but still has her male lower parts. I kept going through bouts of hating myself for my body and fear with being trans - especially not being as openly accepted as I thought I would have been by my siblings. So that is somewhat Ardrana’s history too in a way but the joy with OCs is that you get to have them say and feel what you wish. So in her story, she will be confronted a couple times by people for being trans and she will fight it and stand proud because I love her and just because I don’t have that strength all the time doesn’t she mean she doesn’t have to. USE If I ever participate in a DnD campaign, she will be one of my characters BUT for further use, I do plan to make a lengthy comic about her where in the end she has a girlfriend and that’s it lmao, i mean, do they settle down on a farm somewhere? maybe. or on a boat? who knows? the story will tell! INFORMATION I can’t say MUCH as I’m still new to DnD so I’m not sure of classes etc but in a party, she’s the caring muscle character. Not book smart but definitely street smart - very skilled in hunting and wood-based creating (coming from her name; gore = y’know..killing and adze = it’s an old type of tool for shaping wood) so i’m guessing she’d have advantages on using bows as an attack and creating things when wood is involved? (wHO KNOWS LMAO i am..so new to DnD) She carries a large battle axe and a large sword. Due to a lot of use with the battle axe, she wears a light back brace. Her favourite food is fruit! Particularly berries - although eating juicy fruits when you have tusks that don’t let your lips close completely can get messy.. Her favourite hobby is whittling - in her belongings you can always find a couple or a few whittled animals or things, they tend to change weekly as she will give them to any children she sees in a town or leave them in random places Her fear is currently unknown Her religion is currently unknown - having left her region, she is finding the range of religions throughout her travels to be quite mind boggling I don’t think I have anything else to say about her.. Her current design is pretty set, although some minor tweak may happen and information about her may change slightly but the main details are set.

[colonel-insomniac]

I Won’t Dance

Welp. I did it again, and I made it into a one shot book on AO3

“I won’t dance, don’t ask me…” 

Patrick can’t dance. Too him, that’s a fact that he thinks is plain to see. And still, whether it be Bobby or Sandy asking him, he feels bad for saying no. But he doesn’t want them to think he’s stupid for not knowing how to even dance. He already knows he’s not the smartest, and that’s the worst part to him. 

“My heart won’t let me do things they should do. You know what, you’re lovely…” 

Sometimes, Pat thinks the only thing he can do is eat, sleep, and play music. At least, he thinks he’s good at making music. Bobby’s assured him so many times that he’s perfect the way he is. But sometimes Pat doesn’t know whether that’s true. 

He wants to dance, and that’s the bad thing. His parents tried to get him to learn how to do something when they found that he wasn’t great at normal things. They’d enrolled him in a ballroom dancing class; it was supposed to teach the students how to do many types of slow dances, and a few faster ones. 

He got kicked out. Turns out, he isn’t the most graceful, and he supposes that maybe knocking over a glass table wasn’t very inexpensive, but why should a dance class have glass? 

He’s watched Sandy and Bobby dance, wishing he were one of them. They just looked so focused on each other that they didn’t have to think about where their feet went. They were so lovely together. Maybe Pat was the odd one out.

“When you dance, you’re charming and you’re gentle…” 

They were always so gentle with him, but he’s always so absorbed with his thoughts of music. He plays at diners, bars, clubs, wherever he can, really. Sometimes he gets paid, and sometimes he doesn’t. That doesn’t ever matter to him, though. He just loves spreading his joys to the world. 

He sings Frank Sinatra mostly, idly plucking chords on his guitar while the track for the orchestra plays from the speaker. Neither Bobby nor Sandy know he’s singing and playing at all; and he’s tried telling them, but coincidentally, whenever he tries bringing it up, they aren’t listening. He’s given up trying to tell them at this point, simply dedicating them to “two very special people in his life.” 

The crowds that show up increase every time, and on social media platforms, he comes across the occasional post trying to find out who he’s talking about. He can’t respond otherwise his “secret” will be outed to his girlfriend and boyfriend. Since they haven’t figured it out by now, he isn’t sure he wants them to just yet. 

“For heaven rest us, I’m not asbestos…” 

He often catches Edward, Pat and Bobby’s neighbor, at the places he plays, clarinet in hand. Edward is a pretty anxious guy, and he isn’t as bad as some people tell him. When Pat sees Edward on those nights, he makes sure to cheer as loud as he can for the poor guy. 

He’s told the two that Edward plays at clubs and bars, and diners, and both Sandy and Bobby have said they ought to go watch Edward play. So Pat has come up with a plan. A genius one, if he says so himself.

They’ve arranged to go to a diner tonight. Pat visited earlier and told Edward he wants to perform tonight, but can only do it if Edward goes on before him. It seems that’s exactly what Edward needed to hear, because he’d said he was right about to tell Pat he’d given up. 

“And that’s why I won’t dance, why should I?”

It isn’t that Patrick isn’t appreciated by Sandy and Bobby, but he has been itching to tell them, and sometimes they don’t want to hear him. He’s just used the resources that were handed to him. 

The three were getting ready, walking to and from the bathroom and their respective rooms. Pat excused himself saying he had somewhere to go, and stood outside for a moment, the cold wind biting his cheeks as he clutched his phone in his hand. He and Eddie had agreed to walk together to prepare, and he was currently waiting on Edward to come downstairs. 

<Tall and Leggy: On my way downstairs, don’t leave.> 

Pat replies with a thumbs up emoji, his stomach queasy with nerves for the first time ever. He’d decided to forgo the guitar tonight, figuring it was better to leave it rather than get questioned by Sandy and Bobby or them figuring everything out. They hadn’t found out by now, they could wait a couple more hours. 

“I won’t dance, how could I? I won’t dance. Merci beaucoup…” 

“Thank you for this, Patrick, I know I’m not the best at clarinet, but I am trying to get better.” Edward appears behind Pat, weearing a nice white button down shirt and blue tux jacket. The pants are the same shade as the jacket and white dress shoes. 

“Ed, I’m the one who should be thankin’ you for being so willing to do it for me. I know we haven’t always gotten along, but it still means a lot to me.” Pat knows he doesn’t do a lot of thanking and acknowleding what others do to help him, but maybe this can be the turning point. 

“I know that music leads the way to romance…” 

“So you’re going to sing for Bobby and Sandy?” Edward asks as they turn the corner to the diner The Chum Bucket. 

The food isn’t great, but Sheldon, the owner, holds music nights every Friday night for five dollars per person, so, it works out. Pat nods, wishing he had his guitar for comfort. “They don’t know I’m performing at all. I tried telling them, but they don’t listen sometimes.” 

Ed winces, a sympathetic look on his face. Pat doesn’t want to keep talking, but it feels so good to just admit things to someone. “I feel like they’d be better as a pair, istead of the three of us, y’know? But they always tell me they love me so much.” 

Ed nods, fiddling with the clarinet keychain on his keys. “I mean, you guys work well together. I never really thought Sandy would be into the two of you, but I’d always expected you and Bobby to be together, romantically and whatnot. I do think they care about you though. What song are you singing for them?” 

Eddy’s onstage currently, and Pat’s waiting in the wings of the stage, looking at the audience.  Sandy and Bobby look at each other. They seem a little worried, but turn to watch the stage as Edward plays a slow, sweet song. He’s improved, Pat thinks, proud of the effort his friend has put into music. 

“My heart won’t let my feet do things they want to do…”  

Pat grows more nervous by the second, and he knows Edwards performance is coming to a close. He checks his phone really quick, as it’s blowing up with notifications. People are tagging him in all their posts, and a majority are speculating whether he has split with whoever they think he’s with. He drafts a response really quick. 

<Pat-a-Rat-Tat: to all: Just wait… ;P>

Sandy and Bobby are the first to clap for Edward, giving him an ovation. Pat thinks about how happy that makes him. Others follow, and Edward beams, bowing deeply and rushing offstage. “Oh Pat, did you see?” The starry-eyed man grabs Pat by his shoulders. “They gave me an ovation! They loved me!!” 

Patrick grabs Edward and hugs him, “I’m so proud of you man!! Congrats!!” 

Edward thanks Pat again, and tells him he’s going to pack up his clarinet and join Sandy and Bobby, and to wait for him to get there to start. Pat nods, and wathes his significant others as they scroll idly on their phones. He pulls his own phone out, reading the messages he’s gotten in their groupchat. 

<Not-So-Simple: Pat where are you, we’re worried>

<San-dee: Patrick Starr, you better get your sorry butt here before I kick you>

He has to refrain himself from laughing as his phone is flooded with messages from Bobby, who, from Patrick’s spot backstage, looks like he’s about tear the whole town apart in search for Pat. 

<Super-Starr: Guys, quit worryin>

<Super-Starr: I’m just runnin a little l8>

He can tell neither Bobby or Sandy are happy about this, and he knows they’re going to yell at him later, but he pushes past that thought. Edward approaches them and takes a seat, all smiles now. Pat smiles as Edward aims a thumbs up at the stage, knowing Patrick’ll see it, and both Bobby and Sandy’s eyebrows furrow in sync, and he can just barely here Bobby ask Edward what’s going on. 

Edward simply aims a smile and ruffles Bobby’s hair before shushing him. 

“I’m like an ocean wave that’s bumped on the shore…” 

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to present, the one and only, artist who has been gracing this establishment for months now…” Sheldon begins, holding a mic as Pat takes deep breaths, “Patrick Starr!” 

The crowd goes wild, and Patrick keeps his eyes trained on the shell-shocked couple as he walked onstage. “Hey guys!” He began, speaking into the microphone on the stage. Now he began to look elswhere. The tide was changing, things were finally shifting into place for him. 

“You all know I’ve been doing this for a while now, and I’ve always dedicated them to two very significant people in my life.” He was now pacing the stage, smiling as he gripped the mic. 

“But this feeling isn’t purely mental…”

“Well, they didn’t know I’ve been singing, ‘til now. I tried tellin’ y’all!” He exclaimed, laughing as Bobby blushed. “Anyways, even though they sometimes don’t pay attention to me, I love them to pieces. That’s why I’ve finally decided to do this song. As you can all tell, I’m without my guitar tonight. Had to keep the secret going until I came onstage.” He laughed as the audience clapped. 

“Tonight’s performance is all thanks to Edward. Couldn’t have done this if he didn’t say he would perform before me.” Patrick took a deep breath, calming his nerves. “I’m singin’ to good ole Frank Sinatra’s I Won’t Dance. Those two are always asking why I won’t dance with them, and I think this serves as a good reason why, along with the fact that I’m not good at anything other than making music.” 

The crowd laughs, and Patrick smiles, glancing at Sandy and Bobby. Bobby looks absolutely enthralled, cheeks blushing a rosy color as he grins widely at Patrick. Sandy’s also smiling, but there’s an evil glint in her eyes, and Pat gulps, tugging at the collar of his shirt comically. “This might be my last performance y’all. She’s gonna kill me. Enjoy!” 

As Patrick sings, the audience sways. 

The last note plays out and the audience cheers, standing. “That’s my boyfriend!” Bobby manages to yell louder than the audience. And when the audience falls silent and turns to look for the guy claiming he’s Pat’s boyfriend, Bobby turns too. Pat laughs, and Bobby looks back at him again, red in the face. “Haha, Sponge, ever the theatrical nerd.” Bobby winks at him as the audience sits back down. Sandy’s still laughing, but she drags a finger across her neck, playfully threatening Pat. 

“Patrick Starr, why in the world would you do that? You done had Bobby and I just about to rip the town apart in search of you, you goof. And now,” She states, stalking toward him with an evil grin, “You. Are. Gonna. Get. It.” She jumps on top of him, tickling his sides. Bobby, always wanting attention, hops on the couch next to Pat.

“I told y’all…I can’t…dance.” Pat states between gasps for air. 

“So if I hold you in my arms…”   

“You had me so worried.” Bobby joins Sandy with the tickling. 

Patrick could easily overpower them, he realizes. He wraps his arms around the two, sides hurting, bringing them close to him. “Sorry, guys, but I told you that I’ve been doing this. Y’all need to pay more attention to me!” 

“Sorry Pat.” Bobby apologizes, sincere and with a sweet smile gracing his face. 

“Yeah, Pat, sorry.” Sandy chimes, pinching his cheek with a grin. 

“That’s alright,” Pat looks at them, “now you know.” He pecks them each on the cheek. 

“I won’t dance!”

[moonlightreal]

Winx Club  Season 8/18

You’re right, all the episodes were gone from Raiplay!  Dang, now I wish I’d watched til the end when they were all up.  This was the last episode I have; now we’ll have to wait until the next batch drops on @winxclubcomics. Go send her a nice note wouldya?  She is a true load-bearing member of this fandom.  And I hope her sources deliver the rest of the season soon!

Shameless plug: I also write fiction.  Very long fiction.  If y’all need more Winx while you quarantine, I’ve got a story that’ll probably last you ‘til we can all go out again!

In the meantime...

In which Palladium teaches a spell and some lumens lay down the law.

18 Valley of the Flying Unicorns

Yay flying unicorns!  Bloom seems just as enthused as I am when she voiceovers the title.

In Palladium’s class.  The girls take notes.  Bloom draws a picture of Sky.  Love it when the writers remember that she draws.

Palladium announces they’re going to learn to make a perfect hair and makeup potion! He sounds totally thrilled about it, heh.  Is that how Palladium keeps his hair lookin’ so good?  Is it normal in elf society for dudes to be all about the perfect hair?  Or is there something we should know about our favorite elf?  Well in the comics he has a girlfriend, Athris, so I guess the only canon we have for Palladium in love says he’s straight.

Stella is enthused too, of course.  She squees about how she adores cosmetic potions, and leaps to be Palladium’s assistant for a demonstration.

But these potions are very delicate and require “maximum concentration and minimal excitement.”

Stella deflates. Dang, there could’ve been a callback to season one where we hear Stella blew up the potions lab trying to create a new shade of pink.

Palladium decided Bloom is a better choice for assistant.  But she’s distracted by mopily drawing Sky.  Tecna pokes her and says, “Are you offline?” which I have never heard to mean that but I think it’s great.  Like Tecna’s “achievement unlocked” thing I think Rainbow is trying to get her back to a unique (nerdy) way of speaking.  I kinda would have preferred the real season one’s “I am logical and don’t understand normal stuff” Tec rather than “Nerd is the new cute!” Tec, but either one is an attempt to make her unique, so props to Rainbow!

Bloom mopes. Palladium growls.  Bloom pops up and has no clue what she’s supposed to be doing.  She drops things in the cauldron.

Ingredients: five drops of liquid beauty, three petals of a young lily, and a teaspoonful of lunar essence.  Hmm, so if I were going to make this… the lily petals are easy, and for lunar essence you put a quartz crystal in a bowl of water and leave it in the light of a full moon. The “liquid beauty” is a red liquid in a test tube, so… lemme get Cunningham’s… where the heck is my Cunningham’s?!… well, none of the plants listed under” beauty: to attain” are plants that would create a red liquid.  So I’d use some kind of pomegranate juice drink, because pomegranates are associated with Persephone whose beauty was so great that death himself fell in love with her.

Next Bloom has to visualize the final effect of the spell.  But since Bloom is distracted there’s a poof and then Palladium’s hair is a bird’s nest, with an egg and two parent birds in it!  He is very grumpy, but still cute!  The rest of the class laughs and Bloom apologizes. Stella snarks that her excitement didn’t turn out to be the problem here!

So it’s not a potion for drinking, so you could totally cast this spell.  Just not if you have cats; lilies are toxic to cats so they shouldn’t be in the same house just in case.

Great outdoor shot of Alfea.  In the courtyard the girls ask Bloom what has her so distracted.  It’s Sky, of course it is, he hasn’t been in contact for days!  Bloom knows he’s on a secret mission, but she can’t stop worrying that he’s in danger.  A rather sensible worry with the Trix and Valtor out there.  But Bloom was worried about Sky getting caught by “Eraklyon’s royal condors” which resulted in the bird nest.

Bloom shifts to the next worry: either Sky isn’t able to message, or he’s choosing not to.  Flora rather shallowly tells her not to think about it, but here’s Twinkle to shift the scene by crashing into Bloom!

There’s no trouble, Twinkle just came to visit.  But then the star case appears. “The third prime star waits on Monocerous, not far, look beyond the clouds and higher, you’ll find the trust that you desire.”

Monocerous?!  I- I- That is a dumb name!  Yeah I know it means one-horn, it’s still dumb sounding!

Stella doesn’t know the place, but Twinkle has visited and tells them about the unicorns.  She’ll take them there!

Valtor’s watching.  He sends the Trix out.  Darcy says following the Winx is getting annoying.  Stormy says the riddle was about trust and she trusts—herself!  She wants to go alone!  can’t say I disagree, Stormy, with sisters like yours.

Icy jumps on her about how finding one star doesn’t make her the strongest witch in the magic universe and how SHE’ll get the star just time.  Stormy snarks back.  Lovin’ Stormy this season!  Valtor gets bored with this and snaps at them but he does show off his green star, he’s keeping it in a bubble with a sort of pink thorny vine grown around it.

Cut to winxboarding over a green land of lakes and rainbows and waterfalls, just the kind of place winged unicorns like to live.  This realm also has floating islands, what I think are called “earthmotes” in D&D, they’re a terrain feature I’m fond of.  The girls enjoy boarding.  Twinkle says it’s “starsome” here.”

Tec says she’s read that winged unicorns don’t trust strangers and maybe they should “prepare some kind of speech.”   but Stella and Flora are sure they’ll be fine.

And then Diaspro plummets out of the sky.  Wait, what?  It looks like the same world but clearly not exactly where the Winx are.  Sky is flying with his Specialist suit and Disapro has similar metal wings-- NOT her fairy wings—and she’s flailing around unable to fly straight.  “I hate this flying gizmo!  Sky, can’t you just carry me?” she asks in the most smarmy voice ever.

Sky says that’s not an option, in the most utterly done voice ever.

Why isn’t Disa using her own wings??  Is she for absolute not a fairy since the timeslide??  

Sky says they need to get past the floating rocks to reach the lost locket of Eraklyon, which they’re apparently still looking for.  Was that temple on Monocerous?  Why would the locket be on an uninhabited world that’s so out of the way Stella hadn’t heard of it even though it has unicorns and I’m sure Stella went through a phase when unicorns were the greatest thing ever, since every girl goes through that phase!  I’m not sure I ever left that phase!

We see some flying unicorns, white with wings and colored manes and tails.  I think the sight of them does Sky some good because he questions if they’re really going to find the locket—but Diaspro’s walked away.

Then she… startles a unicorn and it tries to take off but Diaspro floats into the air for no discernible reason and she falls on Sky.  Did her wings malfunction?  Do the unicorns have a flight field around them that she got caught in?  It was a very weird little moment.

Because this is not an anime, she does not land with her boobs on Sky’s face but I’m sure she wishes she had.  Sky gets up, growling, and Disa says, “I can’t imagine what I’d do if I were alone, among such fierce creatures!”

“Yeah.  Very fierce.”  Sky says with all the skepticism we’re all feeling.

He flies off into the sky with Diaspro wobbling after.  He asks Diaspro if she’s sure they’re in the right place.  She unrolls her ‘map’ again—still emojis of her and Sky in a heart!--and says the medallion is on one of the floating rocks.  But there are a lot of them.  Sky suggests splitting the party but Diaspro is too scared.

But they’ve got company!  Unilumens!  With pink hair and unicorn horn headbands. They say the floating rocks are just for unicorns and their friends.

Sky starts to ask about the medallion but Diaspro says, ‘We’re on a special mission for the king of Eraklyon so we can go where we please.”

Disa, these lumens are not Eraklyon subjects…

The lumens attack! Ahahahaha!  Yay unilumens!  They shoot pink blasts and Sky and Diaspro jump into the air to dodge.  Diaspro drops her map, which unrolls on the ground.  Sky sees it!

Sky: “But this is not a real map!  it’s a fake!”

Diaspro; “Um, uh, I, I can explain, well actually...”  she admits she made it up to keep their mission going as long as possible.

Sky yells at her.

Eventually he realizes there is in fact no medallion to find.  Disa admits to this too.

Lumen: “I think she deserves to be punished!  Can we handle this?”  She sounds delightfully eager to lay some karma on Diaspro, it’s a wonderfully delivered line.

But Sky says, “No thanks, lumens.  We’ll just go back home.”  He throws the map at Diaspro’s feet and walks off, leaving the crowd of lumens disappointed.

Diaspro: “Ooooh! My plan has failed!  And it’s all your fault!”

Unilumen kicks the map and sticks her tongue out at Diaspro.  Ahahahahaha!  Love it!

Back with the Winx, more boarding, gotta sell those toys!  They land and watch the three unicorns, but every unicorn they approach flies away.

They’re talking about looking for the prime star when up rumbles… a stampede of unilumens!  

“More uninvited guests!  Are they all coming today?”  Heh.  Unilumen attack!

But Twinkle stops them.  The unilumens recognize her as a fellow lumen and she explains the mission.  Unilumens consult each other and decide to trust the Winx.

Cute scene of everybody sitting on the grass as the unilumens give them flower necklaces.  The head unilumen introduces herself as “Esteria, leader of the Monocerous lumens tribe.”  I would’ve gone with “Epona” because I’ve always liked that name, but Esteria is prettier.

Bloom tells them about the mission, and Esteria says the prime star may be in “the horn” but only the ubnicorns can fly there; a magic barrier blocks anyone else.  Stella despairs.

But Esteria says the unicorns just don’t trust them yet.  She whistles and color-coded unicorns fly down.  Purple, blue, pink, green, more-pink, and yellow.  They’re… boring designs.  Your basic winged unicorn, nothing special.

Esteria says winged unicorns are kind, but they choose who can ride them.  Stella’s keen to give up after just being snubbed by a few unicorns, but Aisha gets her back on target for the mission.

Esteria says they just have to walk slowly through the group and the unicorns will choose them.

Bloom steps on a twig and it scares her unicorn, but they make friends anyway.  The other girls and unicorns pair up in short order.  Aisha is adorably enthusiastic, I knew she’d be the most keen on riding.

Stella is the least interested, which is weird. I’d think she’d love everything about unicorns.  Her unicorn takes a bite out of her skirt and sniggers at her.

Then the unicorns grin in a way unicorns should never do, and their horns light up and the girls get new clothes!  Cowboy wear!  With short layered skirts that are super cute but probably not practical for riding, boots, and cowboy hats.  The unicorns gave themselves hair decorations at the same time, heh.

Esteria confirms that the girls have made another bond, I guess the new clothes are a sign of it.  Could this be a transformation?  Without wings, because a transformation granted by a winged creature wouldn’t need them. We shall call it… Cowboyix!  ...or maybe we won’t.

Everybody mounts up, the unicorns kneel to let them, except for Stella’s who makes her chase it.

Now the unicorns will take them where they want to go… if “he” allows them through.

Everybody’s off! Twinkle stays with the unilumens.

Flying!  Stella’s unicorn bucks her off but then catches her.  Stella screams a lot in general.  Stella really doesn’t like riding, or unicorns.  Do we have any precedent for her not liking horses?  I don’t remember her having any trouble riding Shiny in Tynix form, and they all ride horses in season 4, right..?  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen season 4.  So maybe not being good at riding is a new quirk the riders gave her, or maybe it’s just part of her general Usagi-ish comic relief-ness.

On the other side of wherever, Sky is giving Diaspro some well deserved grief.  Good grief Sky, just haul her home and dump her already.  Diaspro sits and pouts while he rants about how she noticed his fight with his father and sprang the mission knowing Sky wouldn’t check with Erendor since they were on the outs.

Diaspro: “Oh, lay off!  Was it really so terrible to take a tour of the magic universe in my company?”

Sky: “Of course it was terrible!”  Heh.

Sky rants how he hasn’t been home and hasn’t seen Bloom, Disa says if Bloom really cared she’d understand it was an important mission, Sky points out that it was not in fact an important mission.

A scary wind blows! “He” is coming!  Unicorns and unilumens, who were totally watching Sky and Disa fight, flee!

It’s… it’s…

The baddie from the My Little Pony movie?  

(which I haven’t seen since I didn’t get around to getting it out of the library.)

It’s a big black unicorn with a silver horn that’s broken off halfway up.  He rears and trumpets, then dives at the two humans.  Sky drags Diaspro out of the way.  The black unicorn chases them!

Sky leaves Disa on a small floating island and flies off, leading the black unicorn away.  Oh no, he went the wrong way!  Dead end!  The unicorn blasts him with fire from its horn and he falls down, his suit sparking.  No more suit powers!

The unicorn advances menacingly… cliffhanger!

Hmm, this unicorn has fire colored eyes, just like Diaspro’s.  I’m glad we got more from Diaspro this episode, I was so looking forward to seeing more of that “map.”  Hehehe.  

[meiwroo]

Can you write something along the lines of Peter being super obsessive over the reader and he sneaks into her room and hides in her closet every day after school, constantly takes pictures of her and has Polaroid’s of her all over his room, she eventually talks to him in class and they agree to do a project together, she insists that they should do it at his place and she comes too early and sees the pictures in his room? ~ what happens after that is up to you ;) -🎱 (can this be my signature?)

Can you tell I didn’t edit this one as much? Also, I think I’m getting into the swing of things? Enjoy

Okay, so there’s one thing that bothers me. Whenever Peter sneaks into your room, he’s wearing his Spider-Man suit—enough to get caught in broad daylight scaling an apartment building by a bystander—or even worse a villain. Do you know how many villains could peep this and start coming after you?? Anyway

When it comes to you, Peter has a one-track mind.

It’s always ‘Do physics homework—Check the camera to see what Y/N is doing; Cook dinner—Check Y/N’s social media and see if she posted anything new.’ 24/7 until something urgent pops up that requires his undivided attention i.e. trying not to die

And the way Peter ends up in your closet is gradual.

At first he happened to swing by as you were on your way home, and he trailed you

Then he swung by when no one happened to be home. Curiosity got the best of him, and before he knew it, he was putting Karen on mute and sliding open your window before dropping down in your room

One thing he loves is that right off the bat your room smells like you

Staring at the knickknacks in your room, noting whether or not your room and desk is orderly, all of it gives him a better gauge of your personality that he’s not able to see when he’s listening to you and your friends talk during lunch or in class

And then it happens again and again, until one day, his Spidey senses start tingling and he can hear you unlocking the front door and heading up to your room. On the spur of the moment, he hid in your closet. Stupid, if you were the type of person to hang up your clothes as soon as you got home. But for hours until you finally fell asleep, he was forced to sit in your cramped closet watching you in your natural habitat. It was truly a wonderful experience…

It made him feel stupid for not thinking of it before. So, every now and then he would treat himself into sneaking into your room. On particular days where he hardly saw you because you either called in sick, ditched class, or had a field trip with another class.

If you were already home, he’d wait and sneak in when you left the room, or if he was feeling particularly brazen, when you had your back turned and earphones in listening to your music at full blast, he would just slide your window open, climb on the ceiling, and gently sneak into your closet.

If you ever wonder where the sudden breeze came from, that’s Peter.

And it continues until every day after school, Peter beats you home by minutes, sneaking into your closet, getting his daily dose of you.

He’s gotten himself a routine, where he would accomplish all of his work at school before the final bell, head to your place and make himself comfortable on your closet floor, leave when you go to grab dinner and go eat dinner himself with May, and then head out for patrols, before coming back home to catch a bit of shut eye

That’s what? Only like 3-4 hours he gets to spend with you every day? Regardless it’s not enough

Peter does record you though. At first through his phone, and then through surveillance cameras he’s placed around your room; One in the smoke detector and then a listening bug in your light switch

It would be small minor things like you talking to yourself, telling yourself a joke, humming to yourself while you browsed the web, watching you rage quit at video games, and even watching you struggle with homework which frustrates Peter to no end.

Listening to you get upset over not being able to solve a problem makes him want to tear his hair out. If he could just pluck the pencil from your hand right quick and show you how it’s done…All he needed was a minute

Another thing that also irked him? You losing points on homework because you left a section blank or didn’t turn it in at all. During those times, Peter just wishes he could turn homework in on your behalf and not get caught. He’d do it in a heartbeat if teachers couldn’t recognize your handwriting and the assignment had no way of getting back to you

When it’s late, and he’s all snuggled in bed, Peter likes to watch the videos and fantasize about would it would be like if he was next to you. How you two would interact, and etc. He feels closer to you whenever he does this.

Sometimes he likes to fall asleep to the sound of your shallow breathing when you’re asleep

Every now and then Peter likes to ease into bed beside you after hard fights that leave him bruised and exhausted

It’s easy to pick your habits and routines like this. eating habits, bathroom habits, what music you tend to steer towards, what content you like to watch the most on the internet; All of your likes and dislikes, favorite food, color, drink, what’s on your wish list right, what’s even got you stressed right—which breaks his heart because he’s not sure what he can do to help

But Peter has this collection, right?  Of odd pictures that he snaps of you every chance he gets.

He has a collage of them—11 or so—on the wall against his bed. Easy to hide with a perfectly propped pillow if May were to ever walk in his room while he’s away. He hangs the ones that are both artistic and articulates your personality the best. It’s his little masterpiece. 

Let’s say he gets beaten up too badly in a fight and he’s forced to stay home while you recover. Those pictures keep him going

But then there’s the scrapbook Peter has (in his desk drawer). Tons of Polaroid snaps—dated and describing what you’re doing—in addition to nonsensical diary entries beside them about how you made him feel in that moment or what he’d love to do to you, or maybe even a little poem

It’s mainly filled with fun memories Peter wasn’t really a part of. Pictures of you hugging your best friend and goofing off during a field trip, you winning a small award and going on stage to receive it, you participating in extracurriculars e.g. track and field

And then there are the nonsensical ones like your face before you’re about to devour your favorite food, or your aloof expression while you sit outside during study hall, or your deeply focused expression while you cram in gym class before a test you have next period. 

In general, Peter takes a lot of pictures of you; And they’re everywhere. All you have to do is look closely and you’ll find a photo under his desk by the foot of his chair, or a more risqué one poking out from under his nightstand—even phots sprinkled between the pile of dirty laundry he’s been throwing in the corner

It’d honestly be bad if May ever decided to spontaneously do spring cleaning in his room

It’d be bad if you came across these photos which—spoiler: you do.

Everything was going great with Peter watching from afar, and then you had to go and talk with him

Don’t get me wrong, Peter was so happy he thought he would puke.

It had been in APES, and the class was doing a lab. Your friend who takes the class with you and had called in sick, so you decided to partner up with Peter, I mean he did sit directly to the left of you

His heart stopped, of course, he was praising the heavens that his voice didn’t crack, everything was great. His day was blessed, and he actually spent time talking with you which rolled smoothly between you to.

There was a report due on Monday, so you two decided y’all would both knock it out today after school at his place. 

Big, fucking, mistake.

Peter was so high on cloud nine, that he forgot about his little hobby littered around his room—the same room which you two planned to do the assignment in since May had her weird project occupying the majority of the surfaces in the living room which she explicitly told him not to move

It didn’t dawn on him until you asked to use his bathroom, and he walked into his room. 

He picked up a shirt, sniffed, and was ready to toss it into the hamper until two photos fluttered out.

And then magically he realizes that he had his scrapbook out with the recently developed 6-7 photos scattered on his desk.

He heard you exit the bathroom and his heart stops.

“Peter, you in here?”

His eyes dart between the door and the scrapbook comically

He could’ve webbed the door shut, climbed out the window, and then crawl in through the bathroom and say something like he needed to go retrieve something from May’s room—which he should’ve did, but instead there you are smiling at him in the doorway casually greeting him before your eyes flicker to all of the Polaroid's and decide to pick one up

“Y/N wait!”

Your brain takes a full minute to fully process what you’re seeing

Let’s say it’s a picture of you changing in your bedroom

When you look Peter in the eyes and see his panicked expression, it tells you everything you need to know.

You should’ve left after the first picture, but you needed to confirm, so you started picking up the nearest pictures, shuffling through them.

You grabbing coffee with MJ, you going shopping with your mom, you trying on dresses and browsing in a local department store, even you propped lazily against your friend’s car while you wait for them to lock their front door.

“Where did you get these?!”

“I—I can explain!”

You try to make a run for it, but Parker’s quicker than you, stronger than you; He pins you against the wall easily, both of your wrists clasped tightly in one hand.

He’s breathing heavily as though a panic attack was soon about to set in

“I can explain…” is all he says, staring into your eyes wildly

Feedback?

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Season Zero: Yuugi Gets a Tomagachi Pt 2

So because I spent like...weeks away from Yugioh I recently decided to kinda review what was even going on in this show, and so, as I was quickly going through my own recaps this week while putting this Season Zero episode together, I was reminded about this observation I made so innocently so long ago.

I keep making jokes with this show and then the jokes end up being real. Like it just keeps happening, so I don’t know why I bother trying to dive so far into the hypothetical thinking “Yugioh would never possibly do this” but...I’ll keep trying.

So, lets see just how dangerous a Season Zero Tomagachi can be. (v bad)

So about 3-4 days have passed since Honda left school for maternity leave despite the fact he is a 14 yo biological male and was never pregnant. I’m glad he’s here to break gender norms and I’m glad that the teacher has just accepted this.

Anzu has decided it’s time for an intervention and thinks, “if I can talk sense into Yuugi occasionally, maybe I can talk some sense into this purple haired alien that we’re also friends with?”

Miho, I swear.

(read more under the cut)

Yuugi has decided to show off his digital pet, which looks a whole lot like the Olympics mascot from 1996.

Izzy. That was the name of the Olympics mascot from 1996. I got the stuffed animal of him for my birthday and that’s the only reason I remember this weird ass 90′s fact.

I do not like the weird bangs that are Tomagachi arms, and it says a lot about the volume of Yugi’s bangs that they could have tiny arms attached to all those little bangs and it would...match up.

Now I watched a dubbed version done by English voice actors (hence why I’m getting all these names wrong) and I figured, I may as well take you on the same journey I went through watching this episode, starting with the name of Yuugi’s pet here.

Some of you, who know every single thing about Yugioh, are right now like “oh girl, do you not even see how you’re getting played all over again? Do you not realize what you JUST walked into?” and don’t worry, we’ll get there. But first, I have to go through this entire episode. Don’t worry, I’ll address the elephant in the room shaped like “the Joshua Tree” but with bangs that are hands.

(if you are too young to know about the lore behind U+Me=Us, then please look it up and listen to their entire discography and know that we were so hardcore about U+Me=Us that, for a very little while, they topped TRL over Destiny’s Child and Britney Spears)

And so they decide to do the very awkward fusion thing where you slap the butts of these Tomagachis together, but Jounouchi’s tomagachi is way too tsundere to date.

Anyway, in walks this boyman who I think gets bigger and bigger every scene he is in, like Violet Beauregarde. I mean...the door is...only so big. One of y’all brought up in the comments (I think gingerninja) that his name means “whale” in Japanese. Indeed he is.

He decides to show us his shiny golden pet, and remember this is 1999, so here’s some...1999 technology alright.

Dear lord, never draw these nips again.

Just...never again.

This is just...

How is this the only post I’ve made in months that hasn’t been flagged?

...Anyways, Kujirada’s monster, instead of going on awkward play dates, just kind of devours whoever he goes up against in a battle. It’s sort of confusing though because like...the same process for battle is the same as for this weird social network/dating scene.

Like there was absolutely no battle system until just now, when this thing started eating other people’s little monsters.

RIP Johnny and Somomo, who we knew for like all of 4 seconds. Truly one of the most devastating blows of Yugioh lore to see the death of these little monster assholes that have consumed all the time that these kids should have spent studying/actually attending school.

And then, our hero arrives and he’s a freakin mess because he hasn’t slept in 3 days.

And I was fully expecting for Honda to also lose and gain a valuable lesson in how to better use his time. I was waiting for Yuugi to pull out his little pet and go through a whole transformation sequence right here and now. But, something impossible happened.

I can’t believe the episode is already over and it was Honda that won. You heard it here first, kids, always skip school for video games, the Yugioh way.

I mean...kudos to Honda, I guess. I’m just really surprised he won something. I mean, the last time I saw him play a game he full on died by being tossed into a pit of lava and then he got turned into a robotic monkey for like 12 episodes.

Haiyama, meanwhile, did not take this very well, since he was the one from the bathroom who was being coerced into giving money to Kujirada in order for Kujirada to buy the golden pet, who just lost within a day of buying it.

As Haiyama leaves, we kind of assume that Haiyama is about to get his ass kicked in, because he’s small and cute and wears glasses, and this is Yugioh Season Zero, and those are all the things required to get your ass kicked in.

When just...everything starts to get really, really weird.

Also, this happened,

And FYI whenever I do these Season Zero episodes, I also look into the other translations on Youtube and the one I looked at seems to have also noticed that the Warehouse situation in Yugioh has gotten a little bit out of hand.

Ah, I see what you did there, random Youtube guy. I mean I love the abandoned warehouse, personally, he’s a core actor in this show. But yes, I do see how it’s turning into a little tiny bit of a meme.

Hilariously, Kujirada makes sure to run directly past Yuugi on his way to the abandoned warehouse district while carrying this girl in a sack over his back.

It is the middle of the freakin day.

So you’ve probably guessed the main twist by now, mostly because of the lack of characters, but as Tristan comes to the end of this warehouse, out steps our very large 3 Stooges boy who keels over and is...entirely covered in bloody lashes????

For your consideration--Haiyama has the yellow glasses and this face type, yes? and Kujirada has the hair? You stick the two together and remove entirely the problematic whipping sequence and you have yourself a

Of course I say this and maybe Weevil is also in S0 and Haiyama is just his own type of nut.

With a whip for some reason. OMG why does this child have a bullwhip?

Also how on EARTH did he manage to get Miho all the way up there???

So Haiyama explains, while pulling out a photo album of just tons of people in it, a comically large photo album of people that I guess he just keeps in his butt pocket, that these were all the people who were doing dirty deeds for him in exchange for money. No idea how the hell Haiyama got all that money, but he likes to blow it all on what is essentially slavery because apparently once you get money from Haiyama, you’re stuck with Haiyama for life.

Like really there is so much gang imagery in this show, it’s like a big PSA of “Don’t Join a Gang, Kids! Or Your Classmate Will Whip You With a Bullwhip Until You Pass Out In an Abandoned Warehouse” and it’s like damn Yugioh fine, I wont, damn.

But like the whole murdery photo album was certainly something because uh--there were more people in there than Kujirada so it’s like...did they die? Did all those people die? Did you in fact murder all those people, Haiyama? Did you manage to kill all those people at age 14 like you’re some sort of Bakura? Like, it’s Yugioh, so I really am just assuming they died but like...can’t add it to the death count until they outright say, right?

And then Yuugi’s timing was pretty excellent.

colorist kinda messed up on Yuugi’s teeth here. It happens. Cartoons are hella hard to make so we’ll give it a pass.

The TRAJECTORY.

Haiyama then decides to point out to Honda that Miho is essentially using Honda like he uses Kujirada and that was...kind of cathartic for me, actually. Thank you, villain, for recognizing that this whole Miho obsession thing is uhhhh kind of wrong. I guess we’ll see if the fact that Haiyama pointed this out to Honda will actually stick or if Honda will forget it by next episode.

Although, in Miho’s defense, she may be too stupid to know that she’s actually using Honda. She may just be that stupid. I honestly can’t tell what her deal is at this time.

But then Haiyama decides to try and extend the great offer to Honda of being whipped and manipulated for the rest of his life in exchange for keeping Miho alive, which um. Wow Yugioh, this is a 14 year old kid. Wow, that’s some dark stuff wow, this basically serial murderer has just been hanging out in the back of their class for their what we assume is their whole lives, and NO ONE NOTICED?

Like again, this entire class is just...they gotta be plants. There’s gotta be at least 3 people in this class being made in test tubes underneath Domino by Gendo Ikari, there’s just no way they aren’t.

And what’s crazy about Zero vs the rest of Yugioh is that in Zero they just happened upon a freakin maniac. They didn’t like...search this guy out, or enter a contest that they knew was freakin cursed. No, they just wanted to play with a Tamagachi. That was it. Instead, they found out that their one classmate has been abusing their other classmate to the point of hospitalization for the past several years.

They just wanted to play with a Tomagachi.

After that, Yugi had a fun intro sequence into Yami Yugi where a beam of light expanded across his face from the middle and that was actually a very nice effect 10/10 I can’t actually cap the animation but you can trust me. For a low budget thing that this season appears to be, that was a nice low budget way to do a good effect.

(seriously, if Yuugi lived a normal life would he have ever known he was cursed? Would Pharaoh have ever woken up at all?)

Honda at this point passed out due to the constant whipping, which is very surprising because I’m so used to Tristan, who once threw Double Spike Mullet Man over his shoulders. Honda is kind of a weakling in comparison.

So, Yuugi looks down at this device with a little monster in it and is like “yo I have a great idea, lets make the monsters fight eachother” and so we got like...a Yugioh meets Pokemon aesthetic, and FYI Yuugi’s monster still has the weird hand bangs. It’s...it still looks like that.

And, turns out the kick that Jounouchi’s monster gave to Yuugi’s monster made Yuugi’s monster learn how to hate, enough to gain a new power.

...so, in the end, Yuugi spent a really long time making his monster just a very nice guy, and would have absolutely lost if Jounouchi’s tomagachi hadn’t kicked Yuugi’s tomagachi’s ass. I guess that’s symbolic.

PS never forget that these are Tomagachi’s with a 20-50 pixel screen.

and there you are, Haiyama eaten by his own Tamagachi.

Yuugi was like “and THAT’s why you don’t whip the people who are your pets. You treat your pets with love.” and it was like wtf that guy was devoured by his own Tamagachi.

And then you think about it a second later and it’s like “WTF YUUGI. Yuugi. That’s still not a very good message.” And like I figured...this is probably a translation error that they accidentally made Yugi seem like he was cool with using people so long as you’re nice about it, but it was in the other version I watched as well so I think the real desired meaning just...didn’t quite make it to the final draft. I hope.

Straight up, this episode would have scared me absolutely to death while I was still in the Tomagachi craze and feeling very guilty about not taking care of them. Like can you imagine just killing your Tamagachi over, and over when you’re 10 and then watching this episode? Like Gremlins did irreparable damage to me as a kid, can you imagine what this episode would have done?

This guy was devoured by a Tomagachi and Yuugi just watched.

Don’t worry, Miho says “momma” here so she is still about as blase towards Honda as ever.

They did pan down to show us that Haiyama is still alive after this whole event. Of course he’s...passed out so he’ll probably just end up in the hospital wing in Domino they’ve reserved for Yuugi’s classmates.

...Eaten by a tamagachi.

Now, a little bit of story time, in the process of putting these caps together, I figured well after the fact that I should, youknow, go and check on the spelling of all of these characters (because again, I watch the dub so I have no subs to tell me how things are spelled) and the sub version had omitted quite a bit of the episode, including the parts where Yuugi says his pet’s name.

...so I was like...is Yuugi’s pet named Yuutou or Yuutsu? And surprisingly enough, when I typed into Google “what is the name of Yugi’s tamagachi” ...

DAMN IT, YUGIOH.

HE REALLY DID CANONICALLY NAME HIS PET U2!

Freakin U2. SPELLED LIKE IT LOOKS LIKE.

That makes no freakin sense, whatsoever. Yuugi is the type of person who listens to weird grungy alternative from whatever local show his weird anti-establishment cousin tells him about and would just--I mean he has so many accessories and eyeliner, he does not put in his Mom’s CD of U2 and drift off, no, he puts in a burnt CD of early Radiohead while he spends 2 hours dying his bangs in the sink. There is no universe, let it be Season Zero or Season whatever where Yuugi acknowledges U2.

I can’t believe this is Canon.

I just...Wow. U2.

U2.

Y’all I am shook that Yuugi is a closet U2 fan.

FYI, I have been listening to U2 for the entire time I’ve typed this. I mean, Pride is a good jam.

Anyways, I know none of you that are too young to know 2gether looked this up when I mentioned it earlier, so here you go, one of the best worst songs ever made. In case you were wondering what I was busy doing as a young tween instead of having a Yugioh phase.

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

Is there anything more idealistic than a monster movie? The human race coming together in the face of a force bigger than themselves. In the face of a government that is actively ignoring every single iota of scientific fact surrounding climate change, human rights, and sustainability, a monster movie is the exact kind of wish fulfillment fantasy that feels like the perfect escapism in these dark times. And, as the title indicates, Godzilla is the King of the Monsters. Is he worthy of the title in this follow up to 2014′s Godzilla? Well…

I mean. Yeah. He’s fucking Godzilla. 

So not that you really need a plot summary, because if you want to see a Godzilla movie does it even matter what happens in it? I think not. But anyway, the basic story here is that Godzilla hasn’t been seen in 5 years since the events of 2014′s film. Dr. Emma Russell (Vera Farmiga), working for the monster-studying organization Monarch, has invented a technology that can allow humans to talk to and somewhat control the giant monsters that have been chilling inside the earth this whole time, like Mothra and Godzilla and whatnot. But she and her daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) get kidnapped by a mysterious bad guy (Charles Dance, aka Tywin Lannister and you know if he shows up he’s gonna be a mysterious bad guy) and it’s up to Emma’s estranged husband Mark (Kyle Chandler, who is at peak Dad Capacity here) to get them back. Oh and also there’s the eensy, tiny complication of all the giant monsters waking up and just fucking. shit. up. all over the world. 

Some thoughts:

It’s refreshing to know that secretive government monster-hunting organizations allow “take your daughter to work day,” because that’s a real good opportunity for women in STEM, you know?

There is a group of Very Good wolves who are just doing their best. Shout out to the wolves.

So I’m about 5 years late to this party, but I just started watching Silicon Valley on HBO and I am currently deep, deep in the depths of a very severe Thomas Middleditch Situation. SO apart from giant kaiju beating the shit out of each other, I was mainly showing up for him playing Sam Coleman, the Monarch director of technology, and he did not disappoint. He’s mainly used for comic relief, but he still gets to be smart and brave and there’s a really excellent beard happening and he’s wearing a lot of suits and sometimes running in the rain, and it’s all just really good. Good shit, good shit. 

Kyle Chandler plays essentially the same character in everything he’s ever done, and Mark here is no exception. He is 1) The Most Dad and 2) he hates Titans. Whatever you’re imagining that looks like, that’s exactly what it looks like, and you know what? It works! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 

I could honestly go on and on about every member of the cast. This movie is big and this cast is bigger - diverse, interesting, amazing. 

Special shout out to Millie Bobby Brown, who gets to be the young brave plucky scientist teen that in years past would have been played by a boy. While no role in the movie is really revolutionary, she’s giving it her all and she’s a world-class crier, so I was very proud of her.

Like most giant CGI action-fests, the color saturation is through the roof here. It can get to be a little eye-searing at certain moments, but the overall spectacle is exactly as it’s meant to be - spectacle.

I call bullshit on literally everything that happens in Antarctica though. Everyone’s hanging out with no hats on, their faces exposed - you would all have frostbite in minutes. This should honestly have become a sequel to Face/Off real damn quick.

During Vera Farmiga’s big speech, did she like…put together a montage? Did she have access to PowerPoint while she was kidnapped? Where did she find the time? She’s got the embedded videos and dissolving screenwipes and everything, that shit takes a minute to put together. 

Lazy screenwriting note: whenever a character says “I couldn’t be more sane,” it pretty much always means they’re not. Maybe find another way to tell us this.

Another entry in the somewhat-related-to-climate-change pantheon where the villain isn’t wrong, but like…it’s still murder.

How the fuck is your plan to defeat Rodan - who literally has skin made of magma - to shoot him with fire? This monster organization is really pretty fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants and kind of terrible at their jobs. Oh you’re gonna leave your one of a kind world changing monster Doppler radar unattended? Of course, who could possibly forsee any consequences there. I mean, get your shit together.

One really cool sequence that I appreciated was the specific calling out of the difference between Eastern/Western conceptions of dragons and monsters and how that affects our larger cultural responses to Godzilla et al. For an increasingly globalistic film market, I thought this was an interesting conversation and I would love to see more content like this in future global blockbusters!

Can we talk about Godzilla and his character design? I just love him. I love crotchety old grumpy Godzilla. I love that his face looks like my pit bull’s face when he’s smiling. I love how sassy he is, all “I was taking a nap, minding my own damn business when y’all motherfuckers come wake me up, make me do your dirty work and clean up YOUR MESS.” Sassy Godzilla for president.

Did I Cry? A little bit during Ken Watanabe’s big showstopping scene. 

The credits for this movie are some of my favorite I’ve seen all year. They do a good job of setting up next year’s Kong vs. Godzilla, and also list credits like “Godzilla - Himself” and “Mothra - Herself” which I fucking love. Plus there IS a post-credits scene, so make sure to stick around for that!

I enjoy big-budget action movies, especially monster movies. The action sequences here really are something to behold, and there are fewer things I love more than a cold theater on a hot day with a big, loud, fun spectacle unfolding before me. That’s exactly what you get here.

If you liked this review, please consider reblogging or subscribing to my Patreon! For as low as $1, you can access bonus content and movie reviews, or even request that I review any movie of your choice.

[thegoodceai]

Y’all I found this amazing aesthetic builder from @lavellanpls so of course I had to like... procrastinate everything and do this for my Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery siblings cause I’ve been low key obsessed with the game ever since it came out and I’m getting tired of always waiting for updates so yeah.

Some more info on my Ravenclaw sibs under the cut. Also hmu if y’all play this so at least we can complain about it together!!

I have a lot to tell u lot about these little shits so buckle up, but first some family history:

their mother is a Greengrass who married an american muggle, no less, and half the family loves him while the other half definitely hates him

her name’s Angelica, and she has a twin sister named Magnolia (plants names are big in the family, hence Nat’s and Jay’s middle names - they both hate them, and their aunt refused to respond to anything but Maggy since before she went to Hogwarts)

Maggy is an auror and was a Gryffindor to her twin sis’s Slytherin

Angelica decided to offer a big fuck you to all the pureblood expectations everyone had of her and went to become a well known international herbologist

that’s how she met David Foxglove in America - he came to pick up his little sister from a wizarding event that Ange was a speaker at and sparks flew (David and his older brother, Marcus, are both muggles, while their two younger sisters, Joanna and Elisabeth, are both witches)

they dated a couple of years while Angelica was making waves in the herbology community and David was getting his masters in mechanics, and then got married and moved to the UK permanently

anyway the war caught up to them and it was very sad and they constantly lived with the fear that someone will come after their children, but alas they all survived only for Jacob to fuck things up

Anyway so, Jacob:

is 7 and a half years older than Natalia

went ahead and got expelled from Hogwarts in February of his 7th year (good job bud u couldn’t hold on for like a few more months huh?)

only has two settings: not interested and utterly obsessed (which is why he ended up where ever he is now)

intelligent and resourceful, but has absolutely no idea how to explain what he’s thinking to people

introverted, never bothered to approach people first, but if he finds you’re worth his time he’s immediately ride and/or die

being sorted into Ravenclaw meant a lot to him because he always felt like he wasn’t as smart as his parents when it came to both muggle and wizarding stuff

got into a duel once because he stood up for a younger student, and punched his adversary in the face in the middle of it (unbeknownst to him, his sister pulled the same move too in her Hogwarts years)

loves his little sister fiercely, and sneakily taught her as much about Hogwarts as he could without their mum finding out

during the war, when there were long periods of silence from his parents, he always felt the safest in the Hogwarts library - something about the place always made him feel welcome and not alone

seems mild-mannered, even shy, but the moment he starts talking about something that interests him he becomes unstoppable

case in point - he had a 4 days long argument with his fellow prefect in 5th year about a specific method of transfiguration (they were both wrong, as professor McGonagall pointed out)

he can successfully cast a corporeal patronus (a gray wolf) - his happiest memory is of the Christmas after the war was officially over, when he got home and saw his little sister again (Natalia later uses the same memory for her maned wolf patronus - it was the last time she saw her brother happy, and not consumed with the cursed vaults)

saw his aunt Elisabeth wear a beanie once and fell in love with them; owns at least 20 of them, wears them with any opportunity, and even learned a spell to transfigure them from almost any fabric

absolutely loves spring and warm weather, but will wear thick sweaters at any give time and will charm them to keep cool so he doesn’t die of heatstroke when there are 25 degrees outside and he’s wearing wool

introduced his sister to american comic books and literature

has an owl named Albert Thomas Curie, because he loves to torment his father and his love of science

calls his little sister Natty, knows she absolutely hates it, yet won’t stop

Natalia:

hates when her brother calls her Natty, ends up calling him JayJay - they were at an impasse at the moment of Jacob’s disappearance when both of them hated their nicknames yet none were willing to back down

both her and her brother pretend their middle names do not exist - their mother loved to torment them both by calling them by their full names when calling them to dinner

 if she gets good feelings about someone, she is also immediately ride and/or die (case in point: everything she does for her friends ever)

hates condescending people more than anything, along with bullies

absolutely adores Rowan, would kill and get killed for her (she sneaked into the library once at 1 am because Rowan was researching something and the common room library didn’t have the book she needed; got detention for 3 days for being caught out past curfew but managed to get the book to her best friend)

loves all of her friends fiercely, and always tries her best to encourage them to become better versions of themselves

also loves that she managed to befriend such interesting people and is always down to do whatever makes her friends happy as long as she’s with them

hates the fact that she had to involve them with the cursed vaults, does her very best to keep them out of trouble, and is always trying to make up for it

ever since she got detention in the kitchens all her friends got used to her appearing at random times with muffins or cupcakes or small sweets for them

low key hates flying, cause she’s terrified of heights, but is actually decent on a broom

likes quidditch well enough, but doesn’t see the appeal in playing it

has a good memory, and is plenty smart, just doesn’t bother studying stuff that doesn’t interest her (tries, though)

when she became an animagus at 14, Rowan laughed for a good five minutes when she saw the maned wolf form Natalia took - her best friend kept saying that the long legs were because she was always running to or from trouble

loves winter, and loves to ice skate

loves Hogwarts and considers it a second home, she’s more happy here than in any of the places she lived until she got her letter

was almost a hatstall, and if she wouldn’t have thought of her brother, the hat might’ve put her in Slytherin instead

is incredibly good with animals, and will try to pet each and every one of them she encounters, no matter how dangerous

she writes with a quill in class, but everything else is written with either pencils or fountain pens - she managed to charm a set of pens so that she always has one in the pocket of her clothes if she needs it

loves working in their home garage with her father (who owns an auto repair shop) and never really got her mother’s green thumb

is very good with the practical application of magic, but struggles to grasp the theory - she works best if she doesn’t have to think too much about it, which works in charms and transfiguration, but homework always evades her and often times Rowan ends up explaining stuff to her

has a black cat named Bucky who hates any kinds of dogs or dog-related animals, but doesn’t mind cuddling with Natalia in her animagus form

always carries extra quills and parchment in class because somehow one of her friends always needs it

I’m sure there’s more but this is what i can think about atm, anyways come yell with me about hogwarts mystery and tell me about your ocs and headcanons!!!!

[bethesdaglitch]

1-70 do em all! 😁💙

I’m seriously so sorry this took so long, but it was so much fun!! thank you!!! Also it’s super long so I’m gonna put it under a readmore!

1. First game you played obsessively?

Jak & Daxter! 2. A game that has influenced you creatively? Writing, drawing, etc.Lmao I’m not exactly a creative person, but when I was little I tried coming up with and drawing my own pokemon. They were… bad3. Who did you play with as a kid?My brother! At first I stole his Gameboy Color whenever he wasn’t using it, but then he saved up and bought a PS2 so we could play games together4. Who do you play with now?No one really lol. I kinda prefer to play single-player games now? But I’ll play with various friends when we hang out.5. Ever use cheat codes?When I was little, yeah! Especially in the Sly Raccoon games 6. Ever buy strategy guides?Before the age of unlimited free online strategy guides I did, now I just use said online ones7. Any games you have multiple copies of?Yep, I’ve “lost” games only to find them again after replacing them like… four times? It happened with Oblivion, Fable 3, DA: Origins, and, weirdly enough, that one obscure (but fun imo!) wii game, Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon8. Rarest/Most expensive game in your collection?This one was hard! After a teeny bit of research, I narrowed it down to either Rule of Rose, LoZ Collector’s Edition on Gamecube, and pokemon red and yellow9. Most regrettable purchase?Hhhhhhhh I bought the video game for the 2006 Dreamworks movie Over the Hedge. I was only 12, but I still should’ve known better :(10. Ever go to a midnight game release or stand in line for hours?I’ve gone to a few midnight releases, but none that have lasted for hours, luckily. I only started going to them in the last few years, so the only ones I’ve been to so far are Fallout 4, DA:I and uh… ME:A (I KNOW)11. Have you ever made new friends from playing video games?Nah not really, I don’t play online games, so. I have friends who play video games, but I’ve never met someone BECAUSE of video games12. Ever get picked on for liking games?Lol no?13. A game you’ve never played that everyone else has?Overwatch14. Favorite game music?NIER, hands down. 15. If it was a requirement to get a game related tattoo, what would you pick?Probably something cute and harmless like the leaf from Animal Crossing lol16. Favorite game to play with your friends IRL?Lately we’ve been really into Towerfall: Ascension and Screencheat17. Ever lose a friend over a game?Wh—no????18. Would you date someone that hates gaming?So long as they didn’t try to “forbid” me from playing and so long as we had other interests to bond over, then sure. It’d be kind of a bummer though lol19. Favorite handheld console?Idk that I have one! Maybe the Switch, since that’s the most recent and popular?20. Game that you know like the back of your hand?Silent Hill 3 and DA:I21. Game that you didn’t like or understand as a kid but love now?The Civilization games22. Do you wear game related clothing/accessories?Sometimes, yeah. Nothing too embarrassing, though. 23. The game that you’ve logged the most hours into?What, like… ever?? Geez, I dunno… probably Oblivion?24. First Pokemon game?Yellow!25. Were you ever an arcade game player?I actually wasn’t really :/26. Ever form any gaming rivalries?Oh yeah, with my brother. He’s 6 years older than me, which pretty much guaranteed I got my ass kicked in every game we played when I was younger27. Game that makes you rage?Bloodborne and Dark Souls!!!!!! I swear I try to go back and play them at least once a year, and I can never get past the first hour :(28. Ever play in a tournament?Not like an official one, but ones with friends, yep29. What is your gaming set up?Imma be real with you chief I don’t know nearly enough about computers to answer this question with anything other than “a computer”30. How many consoles do you own?Ohohoho far too many31. Does the 3DS and/or Virtual Boy hurt your eyes or give you headaches?I’ve never had the 3D slider up long enough to tell, but that probably means yes lol32. Did you ever play a game based on your favorite show/cartoon/movie/comic?BOY when I was in first grade I played Spongebob: Supersponge on Gameboy advance so much I STILL remember the password that lets you skip to the final stage (it’s WMBT) 33. Did you ever have any bootleg games or plug-n-play games?nah 34. Do either of your parents play video games?PFFF GOD NO. Although my mom does love Animal Crossing. Not playing it, but just like it’s whole deal. 35. Ever work in a game store? Or do you have a favorite game shop?No and no, tbh36. Have you ever shed actual blood, sweat or tears over a game?I… don’t think so? Maybe I’ve cried over a game, but blood?? Put the controller down, y’all37. Have you played E.T. for the Atari 2600? Do you think that’s the worst game ever, or do you have another nomination?NO NO NO OVER THE HEDGE (2006) FOR THE PS2 IS THE SINGLE WORST GAME EVER MADE FIGHT ME ON THIS38. A game you’re ashamed to admit that you like?Oh lord… idk if anyone’s ever played any of Ambition’s dating sims (Dream Girlfriend, Dream Boyfriend, Animal Boyfriend, and Moe Can Change) but I’ve literally been playing them for about… 5-ish years now? They’re seriously the worst, I fucking love them 39. A sequel that you would die for them to make?Hmm… Maybe a new Kingdoms of Amalur game would be cool? 40. What to you think of virtual reality headsets or motion controls?I love VR but the last time I tried it at a friend’s place I fucking faceplanted after leaning on a counter I forgot was also virtual and the first thing my friend asked was whether the headset was ok, so that stung. As for motion controls, they’re fun but they can be a real pain41. A genre that you just can’t get into?Sports games 42. Maybe it wasn’t your first game, but what was the game that started you on your path to nerdiness?The path to what43. Ever play games when you really should have been concentrating on something else?Oh yeah, who hasn’t?44. Arcade machine that has consumed the most of your quarters?Idk if this counts but I am a MASTER at the claw machine and that stacker game. My closet is full of useless shit I’ve won from those things45. How are you at Mario Kart?OH SO FUCKING GOOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA46. Do you like relaxing games like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon?yesssss I love them47. Do you like competitive games?I mean like I said, I mostly prefer single-player games, but I do enjoy the occasional co-op game48. How long does it take your to customize your player character?about an hour49. In games where you can pick your class, do you always tend to go for the same type of character?I actually don’t! If it’s a game I’m not confident I’ll be good at, I pick whichever class is recommended for beginners, and that changes from game to game. Alternatively, I just go through phases where I prefer a specific class above others 50. If you were a game designer, what masterpiece would you create?Christ I have no idea. Maybe a first-person escape game? idk51. Have you ever played a game for so long that you forgot to eat or sleep?NO?? DAMN ARE Y’ALL OK????52. A game that you begged your parents for as a kid?Literally any M game; my parents were strictly “No M games until you’re old enough!” I just got my brother to buy them most of the time though lol53. What’s your opinion on DLC these days?Most DLC is fine, it’s microtransactions in “pay-to-win” games that I fucking hate. 54. Do you give in to Steam sales?HAHAHAHAHA yeah absolutely 55. Did you ever make someone you hated in the Sims and did mean stuff to them?N-No??? 56. Did you ever play Roller Coaster Tycoon and kill off your guests?Ok yeah I did do that 57. Did you ever play a game to 100% or get all of the achievements?Ew no58. If you can only play 3 games for the rest of your life, which ones do you pick?Ooooh… ok, Oblivion, My Time in Portia, and Divinity 259. Do you play any cell phone games?I do! I play a lot of escape games, and uh… the Ambition games mentioned previously60. Do you know the Konami Code?Is that the up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A? Huh, I never knew it had a name!61. Do you trade in your games or keep them forever?I used to trade them in occasionally, but mostly I keep them 62. Ever buy a console specifically to play one game?Yeah the Switch for BotW. Not proud of it, but it was worth it63. Ever go to a gaming convention or tournament? nah64. Ever make a TV or monitor purchase based on what would be best for gaming?Yep! 65. Ever have a Game Genie, Game Shark or Action Replay? Did it ever mess up your game’s save file?OHHHH MY GOD YEAH, I’M STILL FUCKING PISSED ABOUT IT. I had GameShark for Gameboy and PS2, but that one was fine, it didn’t cause any problems. It was ACTION FUCKING REPLAY that fucked me over. I used it for KH2 and it worked the whole time until literally THE VERY LAST XEMNAS FIGHT, when my HP bar suddenly dropped to 1??? Not my HP, mind you, the HP BAR. Meaning 1 HP was the most I could have. Literally fuck action replay >:( 66. Did you ever have have an old Nokia with Snake on it?nope67. Do you have a happy gaming-related childhood memory you want to share?I do! The very first thing I ever saved up money for to buy myself was Pokemon Crystal version. Until then I’d just been borrowing (re:stealing) my brother’s, but when I was 5 and Crystal was about to come out, my parents made me a deal that if I saved up $15, they’d pay the other $15 and I could get it! It was the first time I was working towards a fun goal, so it was all pretty exciting for 5-year-old me lol. It’s dumb, I know, but it’s something I look back on fondly68. Ever save up a ton of tickets in an arcade to get something cool?Lol nah, I think the best thing I ever got with tickets was a cheap snowglobe 69. In your opinion, best game ever made? UHHHH GOD. That’s… super tough. I’m genuinely not sure I have an answer tbh. I’m really into Divinity 2 right now but best game ever made?? Idk! that’s a hard one!!!! 70. Very first game you ever beat? I won’t lie, it was Spongebob: Supersponge on GBA

[hellyeahrpmemes]

※ SHIT I HEARD AT COLLEGE ※

a thrilling saga of shit i’ve heard at college; these are all from my first semester of sophomore year. feel free to change names/pronouns/etc.! more ‘shit i heard/said’ starters!

“The porn industry is moving swimmingly.”

“We all need men. Go find them.”

“It’s not an opera, bitches, it’s a flight.”

“Don’t look! It makes their dick bigger!”

“I have my own place and I can light as many candles as I want.”

“I’m not a librarian, sir.”

“How’s your sack lunch, bitch?”

“Stab me in the ass and turn me into Kim Kardashian.”

“I stayed up another hour just to cry.”

“I just got a nude and I don’t know how to feel about it.”

“I’m gonna go stab my eyes out now.”

“We get it. You have a big truck and a small penis.”

“It’s an epidemic, Karter!”

“There’s no cups, so I’m using a bowl. To drink apple juice.”

“Fuck y’all, I’m eating Fruit Loops!”

“I don’t know my superhero name, but here I am with my can of Lysol and my plastic fork.”

“Your list of things to do includes making the best 2000s playlist of all time and fighting me at Cheesecake Factory.”

“This is borderline human abuse.”

“How do you feel about fluorescent lighting?”

“I’m sorry, I’m on a college budget, I’ll give you two nickels and a paper clip.”

“We couldn’t say hell, because… Catholic school problems.”

“I don’t want them to call me and be like, ‘we’re about to drill into your face!’”

“Ugh, yes, the hot TA, what club are you in?”

“My rat bastard dad? What about him?”

“I have an idea that I’m positive no other human has ever had: butter flavored ice cream.”

“I hate myself, but I’m funny, so…”

“This man loves puppies and he is not afraid to say it.”

“There’s just something about stale food that I really like.”

“I like how we’re watching our upcoming death on TV.”

“When I get wasted, I want to fight. It’s a problem.”

“My boyfriend got really drunk and started drinking nectar out of the hummingbird feeder.”

“He currently has a child.”

“That’s a good way of getting rid of a baby.”

“He can’t look at his dead parents or his alive children.”

“I can’t focus on reading, ‘cause I just wanna watch Drake and Josh.”

“My roommate loves manifestos. Especially the Communist Manifesto.”

“Have you studied his naked body or something?”

“Okay, we got our Greek tragic playwrights: there’s Sophocles… there’s Euripides… uh… Isosceles?”

“We’re so stupid we click things that say ‘click here for here’.”

“So there were just 95 loose pigs.”

“This is called shaming.”

“I can’t be the only person who says ‘meatballs and spaghetti’.”

“What could go wrong? …oh, shit, I’m on fire.”

“Don’t call Kourtney unless you wanna suck dick tonight.”

“There’s no one around. He’s talking to his dick.”

“Just ‘cause it’s Greek doesn’t mean it’s sophisticated.”

“I hate myself, but I hate her more.”

“I don’t know anything about it, but it has bread in the name, so I want to try it.”

“Just… don’t breathe this class.”

“Megan: secret crop top wearer.”

“I’m embracing my aesthetic while you’re embracing… Jon Hamm’s face.”

“What are we doing tonight besides homework? …and bread?”

“I’m witnessing a breakup right here in the Starbucks line.”

“I nominate Gushers as a snack suggestion, but, like, a lot of them. All of them.”

“I have a strong immune system.”

“I was so worked up about the bolo ties.”

“Also, I was wine drunk, so…”

“Does she hit him? I hope she hits him.”

“Only Matthew McConaughey drives Lincolns.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m totally a Republican… Pence is daddy…”

“After that… is the exact same thing… from a different angle.”

“All my life, I’ve been striving to be better than Kidz Bop.”

“Is ‘slaveitude’ a word?”

“Ted Bundy was attractive. People knew him.”

“I feel like whoever’s in charge of the Reese’s company is really high right now. Like, putting Reese’s inside of Reese’s.”

“One beer bottle on campus might be a problem, but if there’s 8, they’re props.”

“With elevators, it’s not claustrophobia. It’s that I don’t trust the government.”

“Headphones: in. World: out. Notes font: ugly.”

“You know that’s a felony, right?”

“That’s a… fourth or fifth impression kind of story.”

“That means she definitely fucked a member of Kiss.”

“I feel free, but also ugly.”

“This is my unassigned assigned seat, and if any of you take it, I will fight you.”

“I went to the Home Depot, bought a bunch of lights, put them up in the air, and said ‘this is art’.”

“Because I was a full New Yorker, I just kept walking.”

“We almost died, but our last meal would’ve been free, so…”

“What’s a funeral like in 2017? GIFs and memes.”

“I would like to thank not only God but also Tinder.”

“I sat through a 40 minute argument about how Justin Bieber started the Cold War.”

“I’m just walking down the hallway, thinking about ways to throw myself down the stairs and make it look like an accident.”

“Now, if it was Kidz Bop, I’d go see it.”

“Don’t name your kid Ethelwold.”

“Shoulders, chest, pants, shoes: a vision for America.”

“My dad’s not getting dick from anyone.”

“I’m a shady beach and y’all are my shady beaches.”

“Oh, no, don’t write that down…”

“At Chipotle, God himself picked those avocados and put them in the guacamole.”

“It should be a holiday: Ohio awareness day.”

“We should go to a nice place. A formal place. California Pizza Kitchen.”

“What do you do in geology lab? Dissect rocks?”

“What great weather for a mental breakdown.”

“He’s not computer generated; he’s actually that large.”

“I’ve done some soul searching and I think that ranch dressing is my favorite food.”

“I almost said his birthday was in 1926. It’s like, we got a little bit of an age gap.”

“Are you physically running away from the situation?”

“I will personally call Papa John to tell him that he’s the reason my life isn’t going right.”

“I can’t wait for middle-aged sex now.”

“I should’ve known, there aren’t two eclipses in a year!”

“I walked around with a bear taser for a year and a half.”

“I found out that the guy I have a restraining order against has been peeing on my car for two years.”

“He fought the devil in jeans and no shirt.”

“She threw my fucking pillow off of the balcony!”

“Tickets are for something fun. Paying the check is not fun.”

“It’s Halloween, calories don’t count on holidays.”

“Well, you know how I said we met in philosophy class? Well… Elise doesn’t take philosophy class.”

“You got it wrong. You said 56 point 2. The answer was 56 point 2.”

“Do I want that horrible sock tan line that I had for five years back? Yeah, I do.”

“I got drunk, threw up, got high, and came here.”

“It’s Titanic blue. I’m the Heart of the Ocean, bitch.”

“The only rat bastard in our lives is Russ.”

“The beats are so good, but the words are such trash.”

“I had to fight someone in the elevator yesterday.

“…I’ve awakened the Demigorgon.”

“We solved the great hiccup epidemic of 2017.”

“Watch out, Kansas, I’m coming for you.”

“Do not associate my birthday with math terms.”

“That’s some Hunger Games type shit.”

“Fuck y’all, I hope you trip and die.”

“I’m very confused and also cold: an American tale. A five part miniseries, this fall on HBO.”

“I am Mrs. Grey! Bring me the kink!”

“I really wanna make a shirt that’s all Comic Sans.”

“I was thinking about Panera’s mac and cheese in a bread bowl, and I started crying.”

“We’re gonna steal your WiFi, but it’s okay, because Panhellenic love.”

“I have confidence that you’re not gonna get pregnant within those two hours.”

“See if this card works. I mean, it should work, but, like…”

“I think my favorite part was slowly dying.”

“All they serve is chicken salad, so you really have to like chicken salad.”

“I have three papers and a test this week, I don’t have time for feelings to resurface.”

“I’m living a life. Not my best one.”

“When you write a report on a book you’ve never read.”

“Don’t tell me what to wear when you wear Crocs to the bar.”

“I have listened to literally nothing but Hallelujah and My Heart Will Go On all day today.”

“Oh my god, Elise, you fucking bitch, get your shit together, and write your paper.”

You know what I’m really devastated about? I’m all out of Fruit Roll-ups.”

“We’re gonna be teachers. We have school forever.”

“I don’t want your sympathy, I want your anger.”

“Clowns… doorknobs… the color yellow… ducks… I’m quoting Victorious…”

“Did you just say ‘hey Sophie’ to not include me? ‘Cause, guess what, bitch, I’m still here.”

“I live here, I know when we have salad!”

“I think Satan’s middle name is cumulative.”

“I will put up with my moose husband for however long I need.”

“I’ve literally been down here for an hour and a half waiting for these nonexistent cookies.”

“I’m keeping a detailed list of Elise’s hickeys.”

“I’m an adult, I say as I eat my Fruit Roll-up.”

“Oh, my practicum grade is in! Let’s see… 36.”

“SOS, I’m in bed and it’s so comfy, but I need to get up to study, what do I do?”

“Get up. Only a few more days until we can sleep all we want.”

“So you’re admitting you live in the woods.”

“I don’t know if it’s finals stress or if this is actually the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, but I’m crying.”

“It was optional, don’t make me feel bad for skipping class.”

“I’ve heard that, if enough people fail, they’ll have to curve it.”

“How do you even study for this?”

[words-writ-in-starlight]

I know you're a big x-men fan (possibly an understatement?), so do you mind me asking if you have any thoughts on the upcoming Jean Grey movie? I don't know enough about her in the comics to really know what to expect (though I do very much like Sophie Turner)

So, with the caveat that I actually did not know this movie was being made until you sent this ask and I cannot find even a teaser trailer for it (I strongly suspected that this was bullshit for a second, until I found some articles), here are Some Thoughts.

First off, Apocalypse was actually my favorite X-Men movie in a very long time--I liked First Class, and the very first Singer X-Men has some nostalgia value, but Apocalypse actually felt like a damn team movie, which was a thrilling change of pace.  That being said, every time they announce a new X-Men movie I live a few hours in existential despair about adaptations of my all-time favorite comics characters, and I usually set aside a few hours to have a crisis before I actually go see the thing, and a few more to watch X-Men Evolution afterward.  I was actually so frustrated I cried when they announced Logan.  I still went to see it!  I did!  But I spent a couple days fuming about how much damage the movies have done to my love for Wolverine, first.

That being said.

Things I am Tentatively Excited About

Clearly they have already figured out that Dark Phoenix needs to be the Whole Entire Plot.  None of this “Also let’s talk about the Cure” nonsense.  Don’t half-ass two huge plotlines, whole ass one huge plotline.

Apparently they’re taking extra time in post to do the effects, so hopefully it’ll be VISUALLY dazzling, regardless.

I LOVED Sophie Turner as Jean Grey in Apocalypse and I’m so, so glad they’re going to keep her going as the Star Of The Show.  She did a great balance of ‘I’m going to do what needs to be done because I’m the one who can do it’ and ‘oh BOY am I ever screamingly terrified of my powers’, which is really what I like to see in any character at all, but especially Jean Grey.  There’s a fine line to walk between ‘character with legitimate fears about what embracing their powers could turn them into’ and ‘Girl who is Afraid Of Herself and needs to be Encouraged’, and I think Ms Turner did an amazing job walking that line.

Speaking of being afraid of one’s powers, I actually also loved Scott in Apocalypse, he had a real personality and that’s depressingly rare in Scott Summers.  Please don’t be mean to him, he’s a great character, just because he’s not a delinquent doesn’t mean he’s this featureless Fun Ruiner.  I thought his dynamic with Jean had a lot of promise and I’m hopeful that they get some mileage out of that.

I think Hugh Jackman has gone into witness protection from the X-Men franchise, so probably no Logan/Jean/Scott love triangle, which--thank you God and also Jesus, I’m Over that love triangle and I have been since I was eight.

I don’t know if they’re planning to have Storm, Kurt, or Jubilee in the movie, but I also loved all of them and would really be thrilled to see them.  I have higher hopes about Storm than the others.

All I want out of this is a good Scott/Jean dynamic, everything else is second fiddle and lower.  Please, after all these fucking X-Men movies, give me a good Scott/Jean dynamic.

Things I am Already Dreading

Hoo boy, folks, as you may have deduced from my above comment about Jean Grey, the plot of “I’m afraid of my powers” can get into some distasteful areas preeeeeeeetty quick.  If they’re determined to go the route of ‘Jean has these abilities within her purview unassisted, but she’s unable to control them’ they’re going to be getting into territory that could go phenomenally well or astoundingly badly.

As mentioned above, if this is straight up and down issue of Jean having these powers as a natural part of her skill set, that’s fine, but please God if you’re doing that and you still want to delve into the fact that, hey, yeah, Jean Grey has some real issues, just don’t be a dick about it.  I’m not even asking for a sensitive take on PTSD and the idea of being traumatized by your own brain in the most literal sense, I’m just asking for not being an ass.

I just want a movie with some fucking aliens.  They don’t seem to have any fucking aliens.  The Phoenix Force is a fucking alien space thing.  Give me some fucking space shit, it has been so many movies and yet I have no space shit.

If this is a movie about how Charles Xavier is a bad person and/or an idiot, I’m going to have a stroke.  Listen.  He allowed a child to live her fucking life by closing off powers she was wildly unprepared to handle, and helped her adjust bit by bit.  That doesn’t make him a fucking monster and I am deeply over the take that Xavier is a hypocrite, a fool, and somehow the bad guy.  Just because Magneto’s philosophy isn’t strictly speaking wrong does not make Magneto right, and it does not make Xavier stupid for trying for a better outcome.  Believing that life is valuable is never the wrong call--which, incidentally, is a philosophy I learned from the fucking X-Men.

Things About Which I am Undecided

They’re planning to have Magneto in it which...look, y’all, I love Ian McKellan with a love that is true and pure, but having Mags in Last Stand was a questionable decision at best, tied into the frankly Bad decision to do the Cure plot as well as Dark Phoenix.  I enjoy Fassbender’s Magneto and like his dynamic with Xavier very much, and would normally be pleased to see them be Tense at each other some more.  However.  Last Stand has made me permanently skeptical of having Magneto in a Dark Phoenix narrative.

Like I said, they don’t have the Shi’ar or any space shit at all, as far as I can tell, which.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  I’ll be curious to see how they do the plot without that component, because, again, Last Stand went poorly.

The cast, particularly Sophie Turner, say that this film is “more emotionally-laden and grounded” and oh my God guys, that could go so well or it could be a train wreck.  You know what else was supposed to be emotionally laden?  Civil War.  I think we are all learning about my opinions on that subject.

It’s gonna have Mystique in it, which--listen.  I understand that she’s a good obvious parallel to Xavier, in that her powers are physically obvious and his are not, et cetera et cetera, but I never reeeeeeally cared that much about Mystique prior to First Class and I can’t say that Days of Future Past (FUCK DoFP) or Apocalypse really kept up my interest.  So.  Like.  I care a lot more about any of the other options for a focus character.  

I want some good Xavier and Magneto interactions, if Magneto’s going to be there anyway.  I do NOT want this to be another movie about Xavier and Magneto’s relationship delicately supported by another character undergoing a much more interesting plot.

Things You Can Expect Regardless of Actual Film Quality

I’m gonna write some posts.  It’s inevitable.  They will either be rhapsodies about my love for the film or wrathful breakdowns of all my complaints.

I’ll probably write some fic.  I’m still really happy with limitations of wax, which takes place after Apocalypse, and I have that long-ass post-canon Evo-verse fic in the works still (pushing 60 pages).  I like talking about the X-Men.

If Kitty Pryde and Piotr Rasputin are in this movie for 0.0001 seconds, I regret to inform you that you will all be hearing A Great Deal about them.  

I will continue to be Not Interested in Charles Xavier/Erik Lensherr.

So, uh...those are my thoughts.  

I love the Dark Phoenix arc, I think I should say that as a closer.  On a wider level, wildly overpowered characters are really interesting to me, largely because everyone’s terrified of writing them and therefore most versions feel very unique.  On a more specific level, I think the comic concept of the Phoenix Force becoming addicted to life, addicted to the experience of being alive, and shattering star systems just to see what the sparks of the planets taste like as they fade out--I think that’s a gorgeous story.  A tragedy, to be sure, the Trojan War against one woman, with casualties spent as carelessly as sand, but a gorgeous tragedy.  If they do a good job with Jean, I’m sure I’ll be just as game for it.

Y’all I’m gonna write a fic after this movie called “terahelen (serious inroads on the welfare of the galaxy)” and it’s going to be the most upsetting tragic shit about Scott and Jean that I can possibly pump out.